The Consequences of Genetics
by SnowBird1452
Summary: Post Resident Evil 6. Sherry Birkin and Jake Muller have not seen each other in three years, but as fate would have it, they are about to meet again in the unlikeliest of places as another life threatening adventure begins. Rated M for language and later situations of graphic violence/horror.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing having to do with the Resident Evil brand in any way, shape or form, nor do I have any fiscal stake in writing this story. It is all for my creative enjoyment. The only things I own are my original story ideas and my own characters.

**Author's Note:** So... First, thanks for stopping bye my little story. Just a few quick things and then my first chapter. I've been a Resident Evil fan for a while now, and I've always loved Chris, and Leon was always pretty cool too, and then Resident Evil 6 came out and my whole world got flipped upside down. I honest to God thought that I would hate Jake Muller's character/storyline in the game, but it was by far my favorite. Completely. He was just so surprising to me. I love the whit and the humor. I love that he and Sherry were put together because they're just such a great match. Birkin and Wesker's kids... perfect. And their journey... ugh. Just loved it. Of course I wished for more romance, because let's be honest, if you're reading this you felt the same way I did about it. They're kind of perfect for each other.

Ok, just one or two more little details, I promise. (SPOILER ALERT) This story takes place post Resident Evil 6, approx. 3 years post. I can't imagine anyone who didn't finish the game would be reading this story, but if by chance you you have, this may contain spoilers. Also, I hated Chris' and Piers's ending. I mean, it was super emotional and sad, and completely showed off Piers's amazing selflessness while serving as the pivotal plot point of keeping Chris with B.S.A.A., but we're going to pretend things didn't end that way, at least in my little universe. Piers lived, is in this story and Chris is still in the B.S.A.A.

This story is rated M. Most likely for the language because let's be real, they're adults and adults speak however they want. There may be an attempt at some lovin scenes later, but probably not very descriptive. Last but certainly not least, I want to thank you for taking the time to read my story. I know it's super annoying to have people begging for reviews, so I won't. I will say, however, that if this story is something you like and you want me to keep posting chapters up here, please review and let me know. Without a doubt I love this story and will keep writing it, it's just a matter of whether or not I'll bother uploading it here. So if you like it, just let me know. :) Thanks, and I hope you like it!

Oh yeah! Also, I do my best to edit/write this well, but if you catch something I missed, just let me know and I'll fix it ASAP. Thanks so much!

*** As of 4:54 EST on 10-16-12, this chapter was re-edited and updated, so hopefully all errors are now gone and it's a bit better. :)

* * *

"Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had."

-Alice Sebold, _The Lovely Bones_

* * *

"_You saved me, Sherry. You know that, right?"_

With her head propped up on her hand, Agent Sherry Birkin stared at the old case file pulled up on her computer. Sparing a quick glance over her shoulder, Sherry minimized the window and clicked on a folder on her desktop labeled "Personal". Her mouse hovered over the file she wanted to open, what Sherry had been thinking about, or specifically whom she had been thinking about all day long.

Sherry's heartbeat sped up as she double clicked and an all too familiar set of grey eyes was staring back at her. Sighing, she nibbled on her bottom lip as she looked at the photograph. It was a picture taken from her cell phone before Sherry had departed after she had survived the final attack from the Ustanak BOW. More importantly, it was the last time she had seen him. Jake Muller.

* * *

_Jake pulled his motorcycle onto the tarmac, slowing before finally rolling to a stop. Placing both feet firmly onto the ground, he kicked out the kickstand as Sherry unwound her arms from around his stomach. When she did so, sitting back, Jake felt his heart drop at the loss of her warmth against him. Of course the real warmth he knew he was going to miss was everything about her and what she brought to his life. Sherry Birkin was about to get onto a plane and fly home to the United States and he once again found himself alone._

_Sighing, Jake swung his leg to the side and in one fluid motion stood, holding out his hand for Sherry. Helping her get off the bike, Jake watched her sadly as she pulled her bag onto her shoulder. _

"_So," Jake muttered, his eyes sweeping her face carefully as he reached out his right hand, his fingers to lightly brushing against her cheek. "You sure you have to get on that plane?" he asked quietly._

_Swallowing, Sherry allowed herself the momentary pleasure of leaning into his touch. "I have to get back. So much has happened and I'm sure there's a lot of work to do. I can just see the piles of paperwork on my desk already."_

_Nodding, Jake's hand fell to his side as he moved to lean against the motorcycle. "With all the shit you just went through for those idiots, you better be getting at least a few shinny medals and a promotion."_

"_Me?" Sherry asked, disbelief heavy in her tone. "You're the one who saved the planet, Jake. On top of those billions of people, you saved my ass more times than I can count! You're the one who deserves all the medals, not me."_

_Jake smirked to himself as he looked past her towards the plane, watching for prying eyes. "Yeah, well… it was worth it. It's a great ass." Looking back to Sherry, Jake was pleased to see a blush spreading across her cheeks. "Of course, the body attached isn't half bad either. So much so that I don't even think I could pick a favorite part."_

"_I suppose I walked right into that, didn't I?" Sherry asked, rolling her eyes._

"_Absolutely," Jake chuckled. From beyond Sherry, he could see the plane had finished fueling and was ready for take off. "Looks like they're just waiting on you, Supergirl," he murmured, nodding his head towards the aircraft._

_Nervously, Sherry glanced behind her. "Yeah, it looks like it. I should probably get going before they take off without me."_

"_Absolutely," Jake repeated absentmindedly, unashamed as his eyes openly scanned every inch of the female in front of him._

"_Jake Muller, stop looking at me like that," Sherry hissed, taking a step towards him to swat as his arm._

_Jake laughed, easily deflecting her playful attempt at an attack, his hand wrapping around her arm to pull her flush against him. "I had to do it," he muttered, his eyes drifting between Sherry's lips and eyes wistfully. "I don't know when I'll see you again, and I don't want to forget a single thing about you." Again, Sherry's cheeks heated up at his words as Jake moved to place her arms around his neck before wrapping his around her body. "I'm going to miss you, Agent Birkin."_

_Feeling her throat close up as tears formed in her eyes, Sherry opened her mouth to reply but no words would come out. After Raccoon City, Sherry spent most of her life being tested to try and come up with advances and discover the secret behind her abilities. As much as all the tests and experiments hurt and dehumanized her, Sherry refused to complain because she hoped that something good would come from it. That she through her pain, she was helping people. When she finally came to age she was permitted to withdrawal herself from the testing programs, Sherry requested to be trained in the hopes of becoming a field agent for the United States in some capacity. After a year of devoting herself to that, Sherry was offered a job under her legal guardian, Derek Simmons who later became a special advisor to the president. Sherry reported directly to him, going on special assignments all over the world making it her own personal mission to help the world. And now she finally found someone who made her happy, as unlikely the circumstances and as strange as it was, and she had to leave him. Duty and responsibility are two things she was unwilling to compromise on._

"_Don't cry, Sherry," Jake begged, moving his hands to wipe away her tears. "Please don't cry. Everything is going to be fine."_

_Sherry nodded, burying her head into the crook of his neck as Jake's arms hugged her close. "I'm going to miss you," she murmured against his skin, sniffling. "Every single day."_

_A quiet chuckle shook Jake's chest as Sherry leaned back to stare into his eyes. "You can't say stuff like that to a guy like me, Sherry," he mumbled, carefully brushing strands of hair out of her eyes. "Someone special like you…" Sighing, Jake leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers, his eyes slipping shut. "I will think about you every second, every single time I breathe. You- you're the best person I've ever known. I need you to know that you made me better. You make me better. But I can't ask you to wait for me. As much as I want to, as much as it kills me not to, I can't. You deserve better than that. You deserve so much better than me," he mumbled regretfully under his breath._

_Sherry's hands slowly slid down from around his neck to rest on either side of Jake's face, gently tilting it up to look at her, his eyes opening. "I don't care what you think I deserve. I know what I want." Sherry was so nervous her stomach was doing back flips, but she forced herself to continue. "You don't have to ask me, Jake, because I want to."_

"_Sherry," Jake sighed, his face full of turmoil._

"_No," she whispered quickly, silencing him as she crushed her lips to his, catching him off guard. _

_From their places around her waist, Jake's arms constricted, bringing her closer still to him as their lips brushed against each other's passionately. Leaning back, Sherry breathed heavily as Jake began trailing feather light kisses across her jaw line and down to her neck, stopping his ministrations to trace his nose against her skin, breathing in her scent. "You're so perfect," he whispered, kissing back up her neck, his lips finding their way to hers once again. _

_This time, their kiss was tender, slow and meaningful. Regretfully, Jake leaned back, quickly pecking her on the lips. "Ok, now you're really late," he grumbled, his eyes sliding over to the intrusive man watching them from the steps that led inside the plane._

"_I don't want to go," Sherry whispered sadly, snuggling against his chest. _

"_I don't want you to go," Jake frowned, looking down at her as he placed a kiss atop her head. "But you have to. You've got some cleaning up to do, remember? Saving the world is pretty messy."_

_Nodding, Sherry forced herself to stand, leaving the comfort and safety of his arms. "You're right. The longer we draw this out, the harder it will be, right?"_

"_Right," Jake nodded, agreeing. Nibbling on the inside of her lip, Sherry pulled out her phone. Flipping it open, she turned around and leaned back against Jake. Naturally his arms found their way around her body, holding her to him as he gently rested his chin against her shoulder to watch what she was doing with interest. "What are you doing?"_

"_Smile," Sherry chirped, pressing a button as a small light flashed. Jake grunted in annoyance as Sherry pulled the phone back to her to review the picture. "Oh, it's perfect," she grinned down at the screen, her fingers lightly tracing the captured image._

_Jake's eyes narrowed as he looked down at it critically. "I look stupid," he complained, nudging her head with his. _

"_You look handsome," Sherry countered, gently nudging back._

_Jake rolled his eyes as Sherry stood up, typing something quickly before shutting her phone and sliding it back into her pocket. "I send it to you so that neither of us will forget a single thing about each other while we're apart."_

_Nodding, all trace of his former smile gone from his face, Jake pushed off of the bike to stand himself. "Well, I guess this is goodbye," he grumbled, downcast. "For now," he added seriously._

"_For now," Sherry agreed, moving to hug him. _

"_Let me know when you're home safe," Jake whispered against her hair, not wanting to let her go._

"_I will," Sherry promised, nodding against him. _

"_Good." The pair separated, Sherry readjusting the bag on her shoulder. She took steps away from him backwards, not wanting to lose sight of him until she had to. "Watch where you're going," he chuckled, grinning as she flashed him a quick wink before spinning around. _

_Watching Sherry walk away made his heart skin. Jake sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Hey, Supergirl!" Jake called, causing Sherry to spin back around. "Can you do something for me?" Seeing Sherry nod in confirmation made Jake chuckle. "Make a list of the names of every guy that hits on you and send it to me."_

"_What?" Sherry asked, her face scrunching in confusion._

"_I want a list of all the guys who hit on you so that I can hunt them down and cut off their balls. You know, to make me feel better about the distance," Jake yelled, a smirk playing on his lips despite the fact that he was being completely serious. "I've heard long distance relationships are hard, and that compromise is key."_

_Sherry rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure. That will happen."_

"_I'm serious," Jake said, his smile falling. "Or just email me names at the end of every week. I'd say month but that'd be too many to deal with at one time."_

_Snorting, Sherry waved him off. "You're crazy, Jake," she laughed, turning and jogging off towards the plane with a smile on her face._

"_Crazy about you!" he retorted playfully, trying to distract himself from the feeling of loneliness settling into his bones. Feeling his pocket vibrate, Jake pulled out his phone. Opening the message from Sherry, he was greeted by the photograph she had just taken and the message 'missing you already'. Grinning Jake closed his phone, slipping it back into his pocket as he started his motorcycle. "Safe flight, Supergirl," he murmured quietly to himself before speeding away._

* * *

That had day had been almost three years ago and Sherry hadn't seen Jake since, at least not in person. In the beginning they would text, call and email each other as much as they could and even video chatted on occasion. But after the first handful of months had come and gone, Sherry started hearing from him less and less. Of course she was busy with work and Jake was taking on new clients and contracts, so communication wasn't always possible for either of them, but she kept true to her promise. Not a day went by that she didn't think about him; where he was, what he was doing… if he was safe.

After Jake's contact faltered, Sherry began sending him weekly emails. Just saying how she was doing, if anything exciting happened and asking what was new with him. Sometimes she would hear back, but most times she didn't. Now she kept a folder of her own that held all the emails she didn't send. Almost nightly, Sherry would sit with her laptop before bed and type out an email to Jake of everything that she would say given the chance and telling him how much she missed him. Sherry rarely sent those anymore, but she saved every single one. She was beginning to think of them more as diary entries rather than emails.

Sherry sat and stared at the picture, something she did at least three times a day, wondering where in the world he was now. Had he stayed a mercenary or was he doing something new with his life? Was he seeing someone else? Perhaps that why he hadn't emailed her in seven months... Sighing, she exited the photograph and pulled up her email. Frowning, she clicked on the new message in her inbox. It was from the new Director of Homeland Security and her new superior, Richard Fields.

Reading through it quickly, Sherry logged off her email, grabbing her phone and dashed from her cubical.

* * *

"Good afternoon Agent Birkin," the secretary greeted. "You're right on time."

"Yeah, sorry," Sherry breathed heavily, nodding. "I hadn't checked my emails since this morning, so I just read it a few minutes ago. Silly me," she smiled.

"You can just go right in. Director Fields and Lieutenant Nivans are waiting for you."

"Who?" Sherry whispered to herself, lightly knocking on her boss's door before pushing it open.

The man behind the desk halted his speech, a small smile coming to his face. "Ah, Agent Birkin, welcome. You are familiar with Lieutenant Nivans."

As her boss held out his arm, gesturing to the man sitting opposite him with his back to Sherry. He quickly stood, his right hand extending out in a greeting while the other snapped behind his back in a respectful fashion. "Agent Birkin," he greeted formally. "Good to see you again."

"Oh, Lieutenant Piers Nivans," Sherry chuckled, shaking his outstretched hand. "I'm sorry, at first I didn't recognize your last name."

"That's alright, ma'am," Piers nodded, the traces of a small smile twitching through the military formality. Piers and Sherry had run into each other a few times since China, usually in Washington D.C. Sometimes Sherry and Claire would meet for drinks after work and if Chris and Piers were on leave or in town, they'd swing by. Sherry didn't know him very well, but she enjoyed his company and they had fought alongside each other in China, so he had her respect.

The Director looked between the two of them, shrugging. "If you both would sit, I would like to go over a few things with you both." Both Sherry and Piers' faces became serious as Sherry moved to take a seat, Pierce following suit. "Excellent. Well, you both know why I called you here today, and as always, what I am about to disclose is not to leave this room. I hardly think that is something I need to tell either of you."

Pulling out a drawer on his right side, Director Fields picked up two folders and handed one to Piers and the other to Sherry. "Lieutenant Nivans is on loan to us from the B.S.A.A. for this mission in an attempt to create more synergy between the offices. He comes highly recommended by everyone I've spoken to and your superior officer Captain Redfield had nothing but praise for you. All of that along with your outstanding service record puts my mind at ease that you are the man for the job."

"Thank you, sir," Nivans nodded respectfully as he glanced up from the folder in his hands.

"As you both can see, this is a retrieval mission from the Middle Easter country of Maldonia. Normally our extractions are done alone as to not draw attention to our operative or target, but this mission is very… delicate."

Sherry's eyebrows knitted together as she read through the briefing description. "It says here that our scientist, Raya Falk, has inside information on Neo-Umbrella's development of a new virus," Piers read aloud, glancing up from his file. "We can assume they've sent operatives after her, correct?"

"Yes," Field's muttered, his hands folding comfortably in front of him. "Agent Walker was assigned to her when initial contact was made, but since he was lost in the field two weeks ago, we had not heard from Ms. Falk since. Late last night we received a transmission from Ms. Falk that she feared for her and her son's life and fled. They crossed into Maldonia in the early hours of this morning. You both leave within the hour."

Sherry's face fell as she flipped to the next page, finding a picture of the woman and her son. "Do we know if they're interested in retrieval or tying up loose ends?" she asked, closing the file. She'd have plenty of time to familiarize herself with its contents on the long flight to Europe.

"We don't know," Fields shrugged, leaning forward to readjust himself in his chair. "But at this point, that's not important because you two will not fail. Am I understood?" Fields mumbled, his face very serious. "The president has made it clear that obtaining this woman and the knowledge she possesses is our highest priority."

"Understood," Nivans nodded, closing his folder as well.

The pair stood, followed by Director Fields who shook both their hands. "I can only pray that you make it in time."

* * *

"So we are flying to Turkey and than we take a military chopper to the drop sight," Piers explained quietly, leaning forward to pull out a paper from the folder contents sprawled out on the table in front of him. He and Sherry had an hour left before they landed and they had been quizing each other on the contents of their folders. Yawning, Sherry nodded, snuggling back into her seat. "Are you sure you slept long enough?" Piers questioned, concern slipping onto his face. "Because once we land, we may not sleep for a while."

"Yeah, I'm good. This isn't my first rodeo," Sherry said, her voice sure as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. "Did you get enough sleep?"

Piers chuckled to himself as he turned his attention back to the information in front of him. "I'll be fine." He studied the page in front of him for a few moments before sighing, leaning back in his seat to stare across the table at Sherry.

Narrowing her eyes in a playful way, Sherry crossed her arms over her chest. "I think we know the information backwards and forwards. So, Lieutenant Nivans... tell me about yourself."

A rare, bright smile broke through Piers's generally serious exterior. "What would you like to know?"

"Whatever you don't mind sharing with a nosy person like me," Sherry grinned warmly, pulling the blanket on her lap up higher as she snuggled deeper into her chair.

Chuckling quietly to himself, Piers rubbed his chin in thought. "Alright. Well… I am currently married to my job," he laughed openly. "B.S.A.A. is something I've wanted to do since I was little, so it's completely worth it despite my mother's objections to her lack of grandchildren or daughter-in-law."

"Why B.S.A.A. though?" Sherry inquired, her head tilting to the side in thought. "You are known for being one of the best marksmen, so why not the Navy Seals or Green Barrettes?"

"My older sister was in Raccoon City when the T-Virus outbreak happened," he said quietly, his eyes distant.

Sherry's smile fell, guilt overcoming her. "Oh, Piers, I-I'm so sorry," she apologized.

Piers shook his head, a small smile turning up the ends of his lips. "No, don't apologize. You didn't do anything. Besides, you were there. You know what it was like. Hardly anyone made it out alive. I just- I hope she didn't suffer too much. Anyway, that's why B.S.A.A. is so important to me, to all of us, really. You're hard pressed to find anyone involved with what we do who hasn't been personally effected in some way."

Nodding, Sherry shrugged. "So you weren't an only child," she stated, grinning shyly. "I always wished I had a sibling."

"No brothers or sisters?" he asked, stretching his legs out in front of him casually as he got more comfortable.

"Unfortunately, no," Sherry muttered. "It's just me, quite literally." Glancing down at her fingernails, Sherry remembered a conversation she had overheard a few weeks ago when she was at B.S.A.A. headquarters. "As I hear it, you have a pretty intimidating service record. The boys down at the B.S.A.A. have quite the nickname for you."

Raising an eyebrow quizzically, Piers smirked. "Oh yeah?"

"They call you the man who never misses his target," Sherry whispered conspiratorially, leaning forwards slightly.

"Yeah, about that," he laughed, shaking his head. "That's slightly embarrassing. It kinda creates the highest expectations for me. So far it's been fine because I have yet to screw up, but that moment is out there. No one's perfect," he chuckled to himself. "You know, this is probably going to sound really strange, but you remind me of a lot of Claire. She's a bit more outspoken than you, but the resemblance is definitely there."

Sherry nodded, her smile growing at the mention of the younger Redfield. "Honestly, that's probably the best complement I think I could receive. Claire is my idol, you know? After she saved me in Raccoon City... I've always wanted to be just like her. To live by her example. So thank you."

"I'm just being honest, but you're welcome, I guess," Piers shrugged, his eyes sweeping Sherry's face carefully. "Claire's one tough woman, and from what I saw in China and Edonia both, you've got a lot of fight in you, too," he murmured. "Even with Wesker's cocky kid, you managed to survive. I heard you two had to deal with a real son-of-a-bitch BOW, too."

Feeling slightly uncomfortable at his comment about Jake, Sherry bit the inside of her cheek as she nodded. "Yeah, it was definitely an experience, that's for sure. I can't tell you how many times I thought I was going to die."

Piers' mouth opened slightly, but it closed almost as quickly as it opened. He blinked a few times as he contemplated his next words while Sherry waited patiently. "I don't mean to be rude and pry, but I've read your file in the B.S.A.A. database," he murmured quietly, glancing across the aisle to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation. "You were exposed to the G-embryo as a child and it's left you with abnormal abilities, right?"

"Yes," Sherry admitted. "Really just the healing though. Other than that I'm pretty average."

"Huh," Piers mumbled, his eyes drifting to the window.

Sherry watched him as he stared out of the plane, his face unreadable again. An idea coming to her, Sherry smiled to herself. "What's your favorite color?"

Piers turned back to her, a lopsided grin on his face. "Green. You?"

"Blue," Sherry smiled, the pair laughing at each other merrily, doing their best to enjoy the calm before the storm.

* * *

"God, I fucking love this job." Jake frowned over at the loudmouth kid he was hired on with. Jake's most recent job brought him to a small, decrepit country called Maldonia in the Middle East. It wasn't the best job he had ever taken, but the pay wasn't bad and it was simple enough. Plus it allowed him to continue his work with disposing of BOW's which satisfied the pull of his moral compass.

The king of Maldonia had hired around a hundred odd mercenaries to help with the clean up of his country. BOW's were running wild throughout the region and being a small country that it was, Maldonia's army wasn't capable of disposing of them or even properly fighting them off. Based on his research, Jake found that the army had literally been cut in half by the BOW wipe out initiative since it began last year. So while the pay wasn't as high as he'd like it to be for as much work as he was doing, it was a noble cause.

If only his team didn't include a man Jake guessed was officially the most annoying human being currently in existence. His name was Gregor Dontes and Jake despised him with every fiber of his being. Possibly because he reminded Jake a little of how he used to be, but he refused to acknowledge that fact out loud. He was a lanky, cocky kid with smart mouth who had a special talent of pissing Jake off. While Jake had his moments and could still be that way, he prided himself on mellowing out a bit. That and he was no longer as lean as he used to be. In the past few years Jake had put on about fifteen pounds of muscle and become even stronger.

The other two members of his group he had worked with before. Cliff Bennet was a 40-year-old ex-marine who took jobs to keep himself busy in retirement and Fredrick Daniels was the son of a duke from England who did it for the excitement of it all. Cliff didn't talk much and Fredrick talked more than enough for both of them, but Jake usually got along with both men well. They were probably the only people he could call friends.

"I can't wait for the bullets to start flying," Gregor murmured happily, cleaning his gun by the firelight. From his place next to Cliff, Jake furrowed his brow, shaking his head to himself as he spooned more soup into his mouth silently. "Really gets me off, you know?"

"You're twisted, mate," Fredrick mumbled, biting a hunk of bread unceremoniously. "Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good rumble as much as the next bloke, but the only way to deal with being randy is the warm, supple body of a good gal."

Cliff let out a small snort, causing Jake to grin widely, pulling his spoon out of his mouth. "Who's Randy?" Gregor scoffed, critically eyeing Fredrick.

"Being randy, not Randy," Fredrick sighed, pointing across the fire towards Gregor in annoyance. "Is when you have an itch that you gotta scrath."

Jake could already see Gregor questioning it further with some stupid comment, being the idiot that he was, so Jake cut him off before anyone had to hear it. "Horny, dip shit. Freddy's saying you're a freak because you jerk off to shooting people."

Nodding, Fredrick grinned merrily as a very gruff chuckle slipped from Cliff's lips. "Whatever," Gregor hissed, standing. "Enjoy your soup, assholes."

"Thank God," Jake sighed in relief, stretching his body out as they watched the retreating form of their young teammate. "What a douche, right? How'd we get stuck with this kid again?"

Cliff shrugged, choosing to focus on his food rather than participate in conversation. "Definitely an annoying little toad, that one," Fredrick smirked. "But aren't we all to some extent?"

"I'm not," Cliff mumbled quietly between spoonfuls.

"True," Fredrick shouted cheerfully, pointing to Cliff who now looked up from his food, a small smile on his face as Jake openly laughed. "Very true, Clifford. I mustn't lump you in with us scourge of the underworld. You, sir, are a good man while Jake and I are undoubtedly dicks. Do you wish to disagree, sir?"

Jake shrugged, his lower lip sticking out as he chuckled. "Not really, no."

"And there you have it," Fredrick smiled, leaning back again to get comfortable. "Now that that odd bugger is gone, let's catch up, shall we? Clifford, you first mate. How's therapy treating you?"

Cliff shrugged, placing his empty bowl on the ground. "Still having issues controlling my temper. Doctor says I need to focus on the root of my anxiety and anger, then I can channel my energy into those things in positive ways."

"Makes sense," Jake nodded, finishing off his soup.

"And the farm is good?" Fredrick inquired, tossing a piece of bread into the air before catching it in his mouth.

"S'alright," Cliff mumbled, his hands folding together in front of him formally. "It's a nice contrast from work, but after a while it gets too quiet."

Fredrick smiled, nodding to himself. "I know the feeling, mate. I know the feeling." Turning his sights on Jake, Fredrick eyed him expectantly. "And what about you, lover boy? How's your lady Stateside? The last few times we saw each other you hadn't spoken to her and you were being a bit of a Nancy Boy about it. You man up yet or still maintaining radio silence?"

Clenching his jaw in agitation, Jake shook his head. "Listen man, just let it go."

Seeing he had struck a nerve, Fredrick's grin became malicious. "You didn't, did you? My goodness, that poor girl. Well, I hope for her sake that wherever she is right now, she's got her legs firmly wrapped around some other chap having the ride of her life."

"Shut up, Fredrick," Jake growled in warning. "You don't know what the hell you're talking about, and this is the only warning I'm going to give you."

"Just because you aren't going to give it to her, why shouldn't little Cindy find her happiness?"

"Sherry," Jake corrected venomously.

"Sherry, Cindy, who cares? You had what can be arguably the crazies near death experience imaginable with this person and you're practically cut from the same cloth, but you let it all just go to shit because you're too lazy to email the poor girl back once a month. I mean, you can't tell me that's not destiny mate," he challenged, his eyes narrowing in debate. "I would understand if you weren't interested or something but-"

"Don't go there, Daniels."

"You're mad at me because I'm talking about your chick, Muller?" Fredrick contested. "You stare at your phone for hours at night either drooling over that old picture of you two or you type out a novel of an email to her but can't cough up the stones to send it. It's downright sad." Jake glowered at his 'friend' across the flames, trying to mentally talk himself out of getting up and strangling him. "Am I wrong?" Fredrick asked.

Usually Cliff didn't have any interest in other people's conversations, choosing to mind his own business or quietly listening, never commenting, but today his head was up and his eyes moved between his two companions with interest. "Am I wrong, Jake?" Fredrick repeated.

Running his tongue over his teeth in a predatory way, Jake let out a humorless chuckle. "Yeah, like you don't already know the answer to that."

Shrugging, Fredrick looked smug. "So what's the problem then?" he asked, leaning forward, his hands folding casually in front of him. "Clifford and I are going to help you sort things out right here, right now. We have a vested interest in your happiness, so spit it out."

"I'm not talking to you two about this," Jake hissed, crossing his arms defiantly over his chest.

"Why the fuck not?" Fredrick challenged angrily. "We not good enough for you? Cause I know for a fact that you have no friends. We're the only people who can stand your arrogant ass."

Cliff chuckled quietly, flashing Jake a small grin as he looked over at the older man. "Talk," Cliff mumbled in a jokingly threatening way.

Sighing, Jake shook his head, dismayed. "I don't like to talk about her."

"Why?" Fredrick instantly challenged.

Scowling, Jake let out a growl. "Because it hurts too much. Is that what you wanted to hear, you stupid asshole? That I spend all my time suppressing everything because letting myself feel what I feel for her… it's overwhelming."

"Feelings, nothing more than feelings," Fredrick mocked in a singing voice, ducking as Jake threw his spoon at his head. Laughing, Fredrick held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry, that was low. I apologize. Continue, please."

"No," Jake grumbled, glancing away into the darkness that surrounded them. "I didn't want to say anything in the first place, but you wouldn't shut up about it."

"Still won't until you actually say something of value here," Fredrick shrugged, trying not to smile. There was no way he could be his cheeky self and get Jake to actually open up.

"Of course you won't," Jake mumbled, letting out a strangled laugh. "Fine, Fred. What will shut you up and make you happy?"

Rubbing his chin as he contemplated what to ask, Fredrick shrewdly looked Jake over. While he knew Jake wouldn't answer anything he didn't want to, he also had given him the most open invitation he would ever get to ask whatever he wanted. "Why did you stop responding to her email's?"

Jake stared long and hard at Fredrick's unwavering eyes, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides in aggravation. Shaking his head in defeat, Jake let out an exasperated breath. "There isn't a simple answer."

"Bull," Fredrick challenged.

Chuckling, Jake held up his hands, giving up. "Fine, it's simple, alright. I couldn't keep stringing her along like that. It was selfish. I hadn't seen her in over two years and I didn't have a clue as to when I would ever get to see her. It wasn't fair to her. I chose to stay here and keep taking contracts and she had to go back to the United States and her job." Shrugging, Jake raised his eyebrows at the explanation. "She never asked me when I'd be done, when we'd see each other, but I knew that's what she wanted. It was between the lines, you know?"

"And you didn't want to see her? To be with her?" Cliff inquired quietly, his eyes pensive.

His frown deepening, Jake felt his stomach drop at the usually silent man's question. "I-" he faltered, unable to lie. He had lied about so much in his life, had so many black marks on his ledger, but he refused to lie now. Not about her. Never about her. Sherry was the best thing that had ever happened to him, plain and simple. Lying about her would be wrong. "Of course I did. I still do," he admitted, defeated. "Every minute of every day, just like I said I would."

Fredrick nodded, no trace of happiness of his friend's sad admittance. "Why can't you? Why don't you? After this job is done, go to her! You owe it to yourself to give it a shot."

"I don't owe myself anything," Jake scowled, shaking his head. "Trust me. I've spent my life taking things from other people out of some misguided sense of self-righteousness. I owe Sherry more than…" his voice trailing off, Jake sighed. "I owe Sherry everything."

"Screw yourself then!" Fredrick shouted, earning a grin from the two other men. "Go for her. Go sweep her off her adorable little feet. God knows she probably deserves a hell of a lot better than you, but love is love, mate."

"You don't even know what Sherry looks like," Jake laughed.

A wicked grin spread across Fredrick's face. "Yes I do."

Snorting, Jake rolled his eyes. "No, you don't. And just consider yourself warned that if you make some joke about screwing her or something sick like that, I will get up right now and kick your ass."

"The thought had crossed my mind, but I wasn't going to take advantage of your delicate state," he laughed openly, tilting his head to the side in thought. "No, but in all honesty, I have seen your gal. Remember back in Somalia when you would slink off to your corner of the ship and get all weird and stare at your phone?" Pulling out his own device, Fredrick clicked through a few things before smiling at what he found, turning his phone around to show the other men.

"Where the fuck did you get that?" Jake growled, jumping to his feet.

His grin growing, Fredrick turned the photo of Jake and Sherry back so he could look himself. Zooming in on Sherry's face, he smirked down at it. "Quite a pretty little lamb."

"Fredrick," Jake's voice was low and serious as he took a few steps towards him. "Where did you get that?"

Standing himself, Fredrick retreated slightly, putting Cliff directly between them. "I stole it from your phone when you conked out," he explained merrily, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "I have to admit Jake, I didn't peg you for the blonde innocent type. I always pictured you with a dark and mysterious temptress. Then again, it's always the innocent ones that surprise you and get really freaky."

Growling, Jake moved to grab for Fredrick but he got out of the way fast enough, emanating taunting sounds as he did. "Stand still so I can kill you, you little prick," Jake hissed, jumping across the fire pit to tackle the English mercenary to the ground. Grabbing his phone, Jake deleted the photo. "Here," he grumbled tossing the phone onto the ground beside them, punching him with everything he had in the arm.

"Jesus Christ mate!" Fredrick howled, rolling around on the ground in pain. "I think you broke my bloody arm."

"Good," Jake smiled triumphantly, resting his arms on his knees as he settled against a log. "You're lucky I didn't break both of them and your legs."

"You deleted the photograph?" Jake nodded, staring into the fire. "Doesn't matter. I'll never forget those supple pink-" Letting out a pained laugh, Fredrick turned on his side as Jake proceeded to punch him mercilessly in the arm several times. "Lips!" Fredrick laughed, tears streaming down his face. "I was going to say lips!"

Scowling, Jake stood, dusting himself off. "I don't give a fuck what you were talking about. Don't ever talk about Sherry again, got it?"

Snorting, Fredrick pushed the pain down and sat up, rubbing his arm. "I refuse to promise such a thing. She's a goddess, and if given the opportunity I will woo her with my English charm," he joked.

"Good luck with that," Jake chuckled, moving to his tent. "You've got as much charm as little toady Gregor over there."

"Ouch. I'll have you know that I'm royalty and demand you respect me!" Fredrick yelled after him as Jake stepped into his tent, zipping the door closed himself him as both his friend's laughter became drowned out.

Once alone, Jake unzipped and shrugged off his jacket, tossing it onto the floor as he settled himself atop his sleeping bag. Crossing his legs leisurely, Jake stared at the ceiling of his small nylon home blankly as he tried in vain to clear his mind of the blonde girl from the photograph. Letting out a noise of aggravation, Jake wrenched his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Turning the screen on, his pass code entry pad appeared. Punching in his password, Jake let out a small sound of relief as he was greeted by the face he gazed at every single night before falling asleep.

Jake didn't even know why he bothered to look at it anymore; it was essentially burned into his mind after looking at it so often for so long. Taking a deep, calming breath, Jake tucked his right arm under his head as he got comfortable. The last thing he saw that night, like every night for the past three years, were those crystal clear blue eyes attached to the face of the most beautiful woman in the world. Jake Muller wasn't a religious or spiritual person, but he was positive that if heaven existed, Sherry Birkin had somehow escaped from it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing having to do with the Resident Evil brand in any way, shape or form, nor do I have any fiscal stake in writing this story. It is all for my creative enjoyment. The only things I own are my original story ideas and my own characters.

**Author's Note:** Ok, so I have to first stop and say a HUGE thank you to everyone who reviewed. Honestly, I never thought I'd get half the responses that I did, so I'm completely overwhelmed. That and they came flooding in so quickly too. I really, really appreciate it when anyone gives up their time to review, and I'm so happy that you all seem to like my little story. Admittedly, I am very much a person who writes selfishly. I've been writing solely for myself for quite a few years now, but I am very new to sharing my ideas with others. So whenever someone gives me feedback, whether positive or negative, I really am very appreciative of you taking the time at all. Anyway, that's enough of that. I thank you humbly again a thousand times.

Next up, chapter two! To be completely honest, I had a small handful of this already written when I posted the first chapter, so that's why this was able to be uploaded so fast. Last chapter was kind of ridiculously super long in terms of a typical chapter of mine, but I wanted the flashback and a nice chunk of Sherry/Jake introduction to the story in it. To say I was shocked when I saw the word count was 7500 is an understatement. Whoops. And as much as I hate to admit it, this chapter is pretty long as well. Again, completely unintentional. I usually have about 3000ish words in a chapter, but here we're getting close to 6500. I had a written, basic outline of how I wanted it to go and then I kept writing out all the lovely little details and before I knew it I had done it again. Oh well. I hope you all don't mind.

One quick last little note, then the exciting next installment. I just wanted to put an informal second disclaimer in here with the aim of not getting hopes up for quick updates. Chapters 1 & 2 are much longer than normal and I updated this story super, super fast. In a perfect world I would be able to crank out and upload a new chapter every two days, but in reality that's most likely not going to happen. That being said, chapter 3 will be up as soon as I've finished and proofed the crap out of it. That could be in 36 hours or 36 days. You never know. Just wanted to put that out there.

As always, I hope you enjoy what I've written here. Happy reading, and if you are so inclined, reviews are always loved and appreciated. Thanks very much.

* * *

As Sherry followed slightly behind Piers, she glanced around the crowded airport terminal. She had been her fair share of places in the world that were not necessarily fond of the United States, but it had been a while since she'd been in the Middle East. Sherry had forgotten how some people felt about Americans. With some of the looks she was getting, Sherry couldn't help but wonder how many more and how much worse the looks would be if they knew Piers was B.S.A.A. and she was a government agent.

Quickening her steps a fraction, Sherry moved to stand slightly closer to Piers as they approached baggage claim. She wasn't generally a nervous person, but having an assigned partner on this mission was definitely a comfort. Sensing her presence at his side, Piers glanced down at the significantly shorter woman beside him. "You ok?" he murmured quietly, his eyes darting around their general area to search for the source of her discomfort.

Nodding subtly, Sherry re-adjusted her backpack on her shoulder. "I'm fine."

Standing in line for the secure baggage claim, Piers began to feel lots of eyes on him, some more critical than others, but all interested in he and Sherry's prescience. Glancing to his left, Piers found a group of elderly men whispering amongst themselves, a few pointing or gesturing to Sherry as they spoke. She was dressed rather conservatively in brown pants with an off white button up, but based on the lack of skin showing on the other women around them, Piers guessed Sherry's outfit was part of the issue.

Looking down to his female companion, an idea came to him. "Just play along," Piers whispered, his right arm coming up to wrap around Sherry's shoulders in a relaxed manner.

Sherry's eyes widened in shock as she turned within his hold to shoot him a questioning look. "What are you doing?" she murmured, trying not to move her lips as she smiled widely up at him.

"Relax," Piers grinned brightly back at her, gently pulling her against his side. "Turkish people aren't the biggest fan of men and women traveling together who aren't… attached. People were giving you weird looks. "

"This is going to help how?" Sherry asked, smiling up at him as she wound her arms around him, giving him a slightly tighter than necessary squeeze.

Chuckling at her, Piers nodded respectfully at another couple who passed them. "Being a married couple will just be easier for right now."

Her smile faltering, Sherry coughed slightly, clearing her throat. "I'm sorry, we are what now?"

Rolling his eyes, Piers pulled her along as the counter finally freed up. "Hello," he greeted friendly, removing his arm from Sherry to lean against the counter. "We have a few items we need to pick up," he explained, pulling out their two check tickets.

Nodding, the attendant punched some numbers into the computer. "Identification, please," he murmured, looking up at them expectantly.

Sherry and Piers presented their passports. "We're on our honeymoon," Piers smiled brightly, his arm returning to Sherry who hid her face in his side to conceal her deep blush. "She's shy," he joked.

"I see," the man nodded, returning their papers to Piers who filed them away in Sherry's pack. "If you will sign here," he explained, pointing to an electronic sign pad before moving away.

"Stop it," Sherry hissed, pinching Piers' side as he laughed quietly.

"Stop what, honey?" he teased.

Sherry opened her mouth to reply, but the man had returned with their cases. "Here you are Mr. and Mrs. Nivans," he said, handing a large case to Piers and the smaller case to Sherry.

"Thanks," Piers smiled warmly, grabbing Sherry's right hand in his free left one. "Come on, baby."

"Don't 'baby' me," Sherry hissed.

As they made their way to the pick-up area, Sherry became more and more comfortable holding her partner's hand in public. With the exception of a few brief moments with Jake, she had never held hands with a man before. It was an innocent enough gesture, and Sherry found that she kind of liked it. It was a much different experience from holding Jake's hand, which was normally gloved and almost always only available to her during emergency situations. Piers' hand was calloused and slightly rough. Not in a bad way, but very different.

When they stepped outside, there was a hummer a few cars down with a soldier waiting outside of it. As he caught sight of Piers' military green duffle, the man stepped away from the car, holding his hand to his face in a salute of respect. "Lieutenant Nivans and Agent Birkin?" he questioned. Piers nodded, saluting him back. "Welcome to Turkey."

"Thank you," Sherry smiled, shaking his outstretched hand as Piers dug through her bag and retrieved their identification, presenting it.

Looking it over, the man nodded in confirmation. "If you would please," he said, standing aside and holding the door open for them.

Piers shoved their ID's into his pocket as he gestured towards the armored vehicle. "Ladies first."

* * *

The ride to the base was a little over an hour in which Sherry and Piers mostly sat in silence. Every so often, one of the Turkish soldiers would pose a question to one or both of them which they answered before the silence would resume. When they arrived at the base, Sherry moved to open her door, but Piers' hand on her arm stopped her.

Looking back, she pulled her hand from the handle. "Remember with Director Fields said. They are air taxing us to Maldonia, but they don't know what we're doing there."

Sherry nodded, pulling her arm away to pat Piers gently on the side of his face. "Don't worry, hubby. I read the file."

Leaving him stunned and slack jawed, Sherry slid from the hummer with a pleased smile on her face. Following behind her closely, the pair was escorted into a hangar.

A highly decorated soldier approached, Piers immediately stopping in his tracks to salute him. The man waved him off, a casual expression on his face. "Welcome to Turkey," he greeted in a very thick accent.

"Thank you, sir," Sherry greeted, shaking his hand. "Agent Sherry Birkin, United States Department of Homeland Security."

"First Lieutenant Piers Nivans, B.S.A.A.," Piers introduced as the man shifted his gaze to him.

"It is an honor," he nodded, shaking Piers' hand quickly. "I am General Irem Demir. If you will follow me." Piers fell into step next to the general as he began leading them towards the entrance to the inner building. He explained some short history of the base and it's accommodations.

"And here we have a mission ready room," he said, stopping and placing his hand on the handle to the room, opening the door. Stepping inside, Sherry and Piers followed silently. "You two may use this space to prepare. Feel free to leave behind anything unwanted or not needed and it will be sent back to the United States for you. Unfortunately, there is limited time before the helicopters leave for Maldonia, thirty minutes to be exact. I'm sure you are aware that you two are being taken over with a supply drop."

Sherry slipped her backpack off, turning around with a confused expression on her face. "We are part of a supply drop?" Sherry asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Is there a problem?" the general asked, his hands folding behind him as Piers tossed his duffle onto one of the benches.

"No, sir," he answered for them both. "No problem."

Hesitating a moment in the doorway, General Demir held out his hand to them both, shaking them again. "Best of luck to you both."

"Thank you, sir," Piers murmured as the door swung closed behind him. Sighing, he turned back around, unbuttoning his shirt.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Sherry hissed, slapping a hand over her eyes as she spun around.

Laughing, Piers slipped the shirt from his arms, setting it on the bench. "General Demir said we only have a handful of minutes before our taxi leaves, so I'm getting ready. I suggest you do the same."

Grabbing his duffle, Piers pulled out each item out and carefully set them up in a row on his bench. Sherry glanced over her shoulder through her separated fingers at the exposed muscles of Piers' back as he slowly unpacked his items. Her throat became dry as she tried to swallow, feeling her cheeks heat up. Averting her eyes, Sherry moved to her own backpack, pulling out a neatly folded navy blue t-shirt. Nibbling on her bottom lip self conscious, she looked over her shoulder again.

Spinning back around, her eyes wide, Sherry tried to force the feeling of intrusiveness at seeing her B.S.A.A. partner in only his briefs. Quickly she ripped off her blouse before pulling her t-shirt over her head.

"You dressed?" Piers asked after a minute or two, his back still to Sherry, not wanting to invade her privacy.

"Yeah," Sherry murmured, turning as Piers moved to sit, facing her as he pulled on his socks.

"You ever parachuted before?" he asked, tucking his cargo pants into his boots before lacing them up tightly.

Nodding, Sherry slipped off her flats, pulling out boots from her backpack. "Outside of training exercises, once, and it wasn't a good experience," she mumbled, her mind flashing back to when she and Jake had to jump from the helicopter back in Edonia.

"Faulty shoot or something?" Piers joked. Seeing no smile on her face, his fell. "What happened?"

Sighing, Sherry tied her boots laces. "It was Edonia after Jake and I ran into you and Chris. A BOW attacked or helicopter and we had to bail." At recounting it, she couldn't help in involuntary shiver that ran up her spine, the memory of the hunk of metal from the copter wedging through her body. "A piece of sheet metal from the explosion got embedded in my back," she explained solemnly, her eyes drifting to the floor.

"But your body healed itself," Piers said, his voice quiet and hesitant.

"It's funny… most people who find out about my healing and automatically assume it's some kind of gift. No one ever stops to think about whether or not I feel the pain. For whatever reason, despite the severity of the injuries, I haven't died, but that doesn't mean I don't feel it." Looking up, Sherry locked eyes with Piers. "When it sets in and the air won't come to my lungs, I don't stop and think everything's going to be fine. I think I'm going to die. No matter how many times this happens, the pain still hurts me just as much as it would you. The fear is just as real."

Piers frowned, leaning forward, holding out his right hand to her. Looking at it with curiosity, Sherry placed her hand in his. His left coming to cover hers, Piers' face was clearly filled with genuine concern. "I promise you that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe out there. No one should have to go through that, healing or not."

"Thank you, Piers," Sherry whispered, doing her best to keep her emotions in check.

Giving her hand a gentle squeeze, Piers released it. Sniffling, Sherry wiped away the unshed tears from her eyes, slipping on her shoulder holster. "So, how do you plan on taking that huge thing with us if we are jumping out of a helicopter?" Sherry asked, nodding towards Piers' hard case that held his sniper riffle.

Fastening the Kevlar vest over his shirt, Piers pointed behind his back quickly before he began filling his multiple vest pockets and compartments linked to his belt with extra cartridges of ammo. "Under normal circumstances with a gun like mine, there would be no way that I could take it unless I held it in my hands. The other option would be an over the shoulder sling wouldn't be safe or substantial enough for freefall. There is a complicated harness that I could wear in a similar fashion to the one you have with the two arm straps, but that doesn't fit with the vest and it wouldn't fit well with the parachute pack either," he explained, placing his handgun into it's place on his leg attachment. "But we got this really great engineer who works for B.S.A.A. and he fabricated a harness for me that is built right into my vest, so I never have to worry about it."

"Wow," Sherry mumbled, impressed with his statement as she finished loading up her ammo as well. "I wish I had my own fabricator."

"Comes in handy," Piers grinned, standing. "So, you ready?" he asked, giving her a once over.

Sherry made an odd face as she stood as well, pulling her tan jacket on. "I can never feel 100% prepared before I go out on a mission," she shared, setting her bag with Piers' to be sent back to the US. "Until we get going, there's no way to know how this is going to go, and there's always some little voice in the back of my mind saying something doesn't feel right or something is going to go wrong." She watched as Piers locked his riffle in place on his back. "You, however, look calm and ready."

"Not quite," Piers murmured, picking up the last item on the bench; a worn dark green scarf. Wrapping it around his neck, he smiled brightly. "Now I'm ready."

"Nice scarf," Sherry grinned as Piers moved to the door, holding it open for her.

"Thanks. Just in case you're wondering, it's lucky," he said honestly, adjusting it as they began slowly making their way back to the hangar, Sherry's laughter following them.

* * *

The ride over wasn't very long. There was a small bench in the hold of the helicopter where Sherry sat with Piers and two Turkish soldiers.

"We are at the drop site!" one of the soldiers shouted as he stood, the other moving to open the hatch. "The supplies will go first, then you two are up!"

"Roger!" Piers bellowed, nodding as he checked the straps on his parachute. Sherry carefully stood, watching as the two Turkish men began pulling the rip cords on the cargo, sending it spiraling out into the air. "You ready?" Piers yelled, turning to Sherry.

Looking down at all the straps from the parachute, Sherry shrugged. "Let's hope so."

Piers bent down and inspected her closely, tugging on things and tightening straps. "You're good to go," he nodded in approval, standing back. The pair watched as the last supply case was sent flying from the helicopter, the two soldiers approaching them.

"I don't know what you're doing in this country," the one said, shaking his head. "But I wish you luck. You will need it."

Sherry's head tilted to the side in thought at his comment. "Why would you say that?"

The second laughed, muttering something in Turkish before giving her a critical once over. "Maldonia is overrun with BOW's and the reports we get out of it aren't pretty. The army has lost so many men the king had to hire hundreds of mercenaries just to try and control the chaos. Whatever you are doing there, it'd better be important for you to risk your lives."

"It is," Sherry answered quickly, her face serious.

Laughing to himself, the second soldier moved past them towards the cockpit. Piers was completely un-phased by the negativity of the other soldier, reaching his hand out to shake the hand of the one who remained. "Thanks for the lift, Airman."

Nodding in respect, the man gave him a hearty slap on the back. "Best of luck to you both."

Turning to Sherry, Piers gave her a lopsided grin. "Let's do this."

"Yeah," Sherry breathed, her hand moving up to double check she knew where the ripcord was. "More like let's get this over with, but to each their own."

Chuckling, Piers walked to the edge of the loading bay, looking out over towards the ground below. "See you on the ground, Birkin!" he yelled over the loud noise of the rushing wind before jumping out.

Following suit, Sherry stepped to the edge and watched Piers fly through the air. Turning back to the soldier who stood at the ready to pull the door closed behind them, she gave him a salute. "Have a nice day!" she smiled, turning and throwing herself from the helicopter.

* * *

From his place in the highest tower of the mostly abandoned rubble that used to pass for a city, Jake glared up at the crates with parachutes attached falling from the sky. "Typical."

"What is, mate?" beside him, Fredrick was on his stomach on the hard, dirty floor, his eye attached to the scope of a sniper riffle as he scanned the area.

"Turks are making another supply drop, but just like last time it's on the fucking other side of town." Sighing, Jake sat down beside his teammate and looked out over the city.

"Those bastards!" Fredrick hissed theatrically, earning a chuckle from Jake. "But to be honest, that is where base is, so it makes sense. It just sucks for our little gang who actually gets up off our asses and kills some of these freaks, unlike most of those lazy shits."

Jake mumbled an agreement, leaning to the side to rest his head against the brick of the wall. "Let's be honest, there's no way in hell we are actually going to kill every single BOW in this pitiful little country. How long are we going to keep at this. I mean, it's been three months already and I feel like we've barely dented things. This country's a lost cause."

"You forget that I just got here a few weeks ago, darling," Fredrick muttered off handedly as he continued to scan the ground below. "We've just begun to play as a family unit. Give it a little longer. Besides, just look at this city and all the change we've made here. This was quite the hot zone for a while and now we have to hunt each BOW left individually. Remember when I first got here? I could throw a bloody stone at random and hit a BOW, for fuck's sake."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jake waved him off, blinking down at his dirty hands. "But now what? People can come back to their homes? What homes? They're all piles of shit and the whole country's in the same boat. It's a fucking mess man. If I was a refugee from this crap, I'd just cut my losses and move somewhere else."

Shrugging, Fredrick pulled his face away from the scope. "Home is home, mate."

Jake let out a quiet snort, shaking his head. "Home's overrated. We didn't all grow up with a solid gold spoon in our mouths like you, Freddy."

Fredrick had a good sense of humor and could laugh at himself, which he did often. "True, but after a while, one grows tired of all that grandeur," he chuckled, sitting back to lean against the wall across from Jake.

"Is that why you're down here in the trenches with us lowly peasants?" Jake asked, malevolently. "Tired of sleeping with your maids?"

"I did not sleep with my maid," Fredrick said, mock offense in his voice and a bright smile on his face. "She is sixty seven years old and spent more hours with me than my own mother." Looking out over the city as he laughed to himself, Fredrick smirked. "My mother's maids however…"

"You're a class act, Richy Rich," Jake muttered, the men laughing together.

Fredrick raised an eyebrow at the nickname. "Oh, now I'm Richy Rich am I? I may come from money, but my personal back account can't hold a candle to yours, Mr. I-Saved-The-World-For-Fifty-Million-Dollars."

Ignoring him, Jake nodded his head out the hole in the building. "How do you think Cliff's doing with Gregor on the ground down there?"

Fredrick shrugged, mirth in his eyes. "The man has some serious anger problems and yet we keep selfishly putting him with Gregor the melodramatic toad. What's wrong with us?"

Jake smiled to himself. "I know why I put him with Gregor." Giving him a questioning look, Jake laughed. "I am secretly hoping he snaps and kills him."

"You're terrible," Fredrick couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. Whether or not he was serious wasn't overly important to his conscious. "So… do you think today's the day?"

"What day is that?" Jake questioned, his eyes moving to the city below them.

"That we're finally going to get the big guy," Fredrick clarified.

"Beats me," Jake shrugged. "It'd be nice to not have him looming over us anymore though. Speaking of looming-"

"Tower, come in. Over." Jake and Fredrick's eyes snapped to the walky talky that was setting on the ground beside Fredrick's riffle.

Reaching down to pick it up, Fredrick wiggled his eyebrows suggestively in excitement as he held down the talk button. "This is the lovely Fredrick Daniels on tower. What do you have for me, Clifford?"

Rolling his eyes, Jake gave Fredrick a stern look. 'What?' he mouthed. "We've got movement on the ground down here," Cliff's voice crackled from the plastic box.

"What kind of movement?" Jake questioned, grabbing the communication device from Fredrick.

"How rude," Fredrick scoffed, glaring at his partner.

There was a moment of silence before Cliff's answer came through. "We have a woman and with what appears to be a small military detail of sorts."

"Fred-"

"On it," Fredrick interrupted, already getting back on his stomach and searching for it on his scope. "I don't see… wait, there they are. Got 'em." Fredrick mumbled quietly.

"How many?" Jake inquired, following the line of the scope and squinting down between the buildings.

Counting to himself, Fredrick double-checked before reporting. "Seventeen that I can see, but that's an odd number. I'd guess at the very least three somewhere off that we can't see as well."

Frowning at his friend's words, Jake glanced down at him. "Don't say uh oh. Uh oh, what, Daniels? What does that mean?"

Leaning back from his scope, Fredrick frowned up at Jake. "We've got a kid, too."

"A kid?" Jake asked, not believing him. "What is this, protection detail?" Pressing the talk button, Jake looked down at the group of people below. "Cliff, what's your status? Where are you two compared to them?"

"They've stopped forward progression," Fredrick relayed, watching the group closely.

"We are on the South side of the street about 30 meters behind the contingency," Cliff's scratchy voice came through quiet but clear.

"They're breaking off," Fredric whispered, the grip on his riffle tightening. Jake stood, looking over the edge to below him, rubbing his chin in thought. "What are we doing here, Jake?" Fredrick hissed.

His foot tapping in agitation, Jake growled to himself as he moved away from the hole in the building to pace the small room. "I don't know!" he murmured, frowning. "They're not with us, that's for sure, but we have no way to tell if they're hostiles or what the hell they're doing here."

"Woman's being lead into a warehouse and it looks like they're setting up a perimeter around it. A few guys are taking the kid to the building across the street."

"We're staying put, but keep an eye on them," Jake muttered into the walky talky.

Sitting up away from the riffle, Fredrick moved to stand. "So, what do we do, just wait for them to move on?"

Shaking his head, Jake ran his fingers through his short hair. "I don't know man," he shrugged.

Fredrick sighed, shrugging too. "We should probably get at street level in case shit hits the fan. Cliff and Gregor will need someone on this side to manage."

Nodding, Jake checked his current clip. "You stay here and be our back-up. Radio me if anything changes," he murmured, switching on his radio and placing in his ear link-up.

"Roger," Fredrick muttered, shouldering his riffle as he got situated once more.

* * *

"See, that wasn't so bad." Sherry frowned down at the tangled straps and cords from her parachute as Piers attempted to help her get out of her harness.

"It was nowhere near as bad as last time, but that didn't mean it was an enjoyable experience," Sherry grumbled, shrugging out of the device.

Piers chuckled to himself as he took a step back, offering her his hand for support as she stepped out of the tangled mess she was standing in. "You're not an extreme sports, thrill seeker kind of person, are you?" Sherry narrowed her eyes at her partner earning an amused laugh as Piers held up his hands in surrender. "Didn't think so."

"My job is enough of an extreme experience for me, thank you very much." As they began heading towards the city, Sherry felt her pocket buzz. Un-zipping her jacket, she pulled her phone out.

"What's up?" Piers asked as he detached his gun from his back and pulled the strap over his head.

Sherry held up a silencing finger as she took the call. "Yes, sir," she greeted formally. Piers watched her carefully, his arms resting on his gun as he stood at the ready. "You're sure?" Sherry asked, blinking in confusion. "No, that's no problem. We can handle it."

Sighing, Piers' eyes scanned the immediate area. In the distance was the contingency of troops for the region's camp that were cleaning up the country, the crates of supplies scattered around the terrain. He and Sherry had landed a distance away and were just on the outskirts of the mostly destroyed city. As he waited for Sherry to finish getting further instructions, Piers critically surveyed the territory. "What a mess," he whispered to himself as he adjusted his ear communication device.

"Yes, sir," Sherry murmured, hanging up and fiddling with her phone.

"So," Piers breathed, coming to look over Sherry's shoulder at her phone. "What's the story?"

Pulling up the map with coordinates, Sherry held it up to show her partner. "Raya Falk is here," she explained, pointing to the red flashing dot on the map. "And we are… here." Sherry moved her finger to point out there position.

Nodding, Piers stood back and stared forward into the city. "So we're not that far away."

"No, but there's a catch," Sherry said, her hands coming up to rest on her hips. "There's an unknown group of men in the city who are armed that aren't with the Maldonian army."

Piers scrunched his eyes in thought as he turned to face Sherry. "Hostile or unknown, and what is their location in relation to us and to the target?"

"Target is separate as far as we know, but they're closing in on her," she sighed, shaking her head. "I don't know what you think, but that sounds like they're after her."

"Yeah," Piers murmured, frowning. "Well, we better get our asses in gear, because we have to get there first."

* * *

Sherry followed Piers at a quick pace as they made their way through the seemingly abandoned streets. "The building she's in is just up ahead," Sherry said, her breathing heavy.

Piers stopped and turned to her, his chest heaving. "Alright, you go grab her and the kid. I'm going to get some height over… there," he said, pointing to a tall building across the street. "That way I can cover you when you're on your way out." Pulling out his phone, Piers pulled up the map of the region. "If we run into trouble, which I'm hoping we don't, head for the drop site."

"Right," Sherry nodded, pulling out one of her handguns and checking her clip before sliding it back in, cocking it back. "No point in dragging this out I guess," she sighed, jogging off towards the entrance of the warehouse.

"Sherry!" Piers called after her quietly. Spinning around, Sherry blinked back at him. "Be careful."

Flashing him a quick smile, Sherry saluted him. "You too. Don't let anyone get me, kay?"

"Roger," Piers nodded, taking off for the tall building across the street.

* * *

"What's your status?" Jake whispered, his gun at the ready as he scouted out the first floor of the building he was in.

"Taken three out so far." Gregor's voice reported. "Cliff's got two as well. You?"

Jake held his breath as he swung into the next room, his eyes and gun scanning it carefully. "None yet, but I know at least two came in this way."

"Do we know their deal yet?" Gregor breathed.

"Haven't met anyone yet," Jake answered, crouching down to inspect an old dusty book. "When I do, I'll stop and ask them."

"We have some movement on the street." Fredrick came through loud and clear to all three other men.

His gun hand on his hip, Jake moved his other to press his communication device further into his ear. "Same guys?"

"No," Fredrick drew out, as he focused in on the man. "Two new peope. One in civilian looking clothes and the other is definitely military. Insignia is… B.S.A.A."

Frowning, Jake stood. "B.S.A.A.? Why didn't we get word they were sending troops in?"

"Looks like just the one," Fredrick said, scanning the area. "Yeah, just one B.S.A.A. and a little- they're breaking off. B.S.A.A. is going North and the girl is headed for the warehouse."

"What the hell is going on today?" Jake frowned, mostly talking to himself as he moved through the building towards the street, his gun raised again.

Fredrick followed the woman as she stopped in front of the door to the warehouse, glancing over her shoulder to check the area. That's when he saw her face and his mouth hit the floor. "Uh, Jake?"

"Yeah?" Jake whispered, clearing another room.

"We have a problem."

He was almost to the front of the building. "Something new or same old problems as before?"

Leaning back from his riffle, Fredrick felt an uneasy chill run up his spine. "This situation just got really, really bad mate. She's-"

"On your feet, now!" Fredrick froze from his place on the floor as the unfamiliar voice came from behind him.

"What was that?" Jake asked, stopping his movement. "Fred, what was that?"

"I gotta go. Apparently I have a visitor," Fredrick whispered, pulling his communicator from his ear as Jake's shouting for an explanation could be heard. "I'm getting up, so don't shoot me." Taking a deep breath, Fredrick slowly stood, holding his hands above his head.

"Put your hands on your head and turn around."

Doing as he was told, Fredrick rotated on his heel and locked eyes with the B.S.A.A. man from the street. "You are quite the stealthy little bugger, aren't you?" Fredrick questioned conversationally, seemingly un-phased by the new development in his situation.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Piers asked, his eyes searching the man for any other weapons or insignia.

"I'm Fredrick," he smiled, moving to hold out his hand but stopping as Piers' grip tightened on his gun. "Perhaps not." Fredrick chuckled, shifting his hand back to his head.

"I don't care about your name. Who are you with and what are you doing here? Are you with Neo-Umbrella?" Piers asked, his voice stern and his face deadly serious.

Fredrick frowned, shaking his head. "There's a Neo-Umbrella presence in Maldonia? Since when?"

"Answer the question!" Piers growled, losing patience with the easily sidetracked mercenary.

"Okay, relax," Fredrick breathed, holding his hands in front of him in surrender. "Look, you're with Cindy, right?"

His face scrunching in confusion, Piers eyed Fredrick critically. "Who?"

"Shit," Fredrick cursed himself as he glanced past Piers in thought. "Cindy, Linda, Mary, Sarah, Stacy… No that's not it."

"What are you talking about?" Piers shouted angrily, his gun gesturing to Fredrick aggressively.

"Your lady- oh thank God. What took you so long?" Fredrick sighed in relief, dropping his hands.

"Hands up!" Piers scowled.

"I think you should take some your own advice there, pal." Piers froze as the cold metal of a gun pressed into the back of his head. Sighing, Piers slowly held up his hands but did not let go of his gun. "What the hell is a B.S.A.A. robot doing wandering around in Maldonia? Where's the rest of your platoon?" Piers listened to the familiar voice, trying to place it. "Not one for friendly conversation?"

As Piers turned and their eyes met, both men's stern expressions turned even more sour. "You?" Piers questioned angrily, shoving Jake's gun out of his face.

"What the hell are you doing here, Jarhead?" Jake spat, holstering his gun.

"This is just ridiculous. Of course you'd be here. As if this planet wasn't full of enough shit holes for you to be in, you have to be in this one."

Smirking Jake crossed his arms over his chest as he sized Piers up. "For some reason I thought you were taller."

"Uh, guys?" Fredrick mumbled from his place looking down on the street below.

"You're a real loser, you know that?" Piers hissed. "Whoever said 'like father, like son' was a genius."

"What did you say?" Jake growled, stepping up to get in Piers' face.

"I'm trying to tell you something over here... hello?" Fredrick questioned, trying to get both men's attentions.

Letting out a dry chuckle, Piers inspected Jake critically. "I said you're a loser, Muller, just like your piece of shit father."

His fists clenching at his sides, Jake reflexively tightened his jaw. "Yeah, pretty boy? Why don't we go a few rounds, then see who the real loser is."

"Hey!" Shoving his way in between them both, Fredrick's glance shifted from Jake to Piers, then back to Jake. "Why don't you two have your little boy pissing contest later? In case either of your are interested, those guys from before are closing in on the warehouse that your-"

"Damn it!" Piers growled, pushing Fredrick away from him as he took off back down the stairs.

Jake was instantly confused, his eyebrows knitting together as he turned to his companion. Snapping his fingers together, Fredrick lightly stomped his right foot on the ground. "That was it. Sherry! My memory is shit."

"What about Sherry?" Jake instantly questioned, concern flooding his features.

"That's what I was starting to tell you when he interrupted me," Fredrick mumbled, shouldering his riffle. "Your girl is here. She's with macho man over there and-" Once again before Fredrick could finish his sentence, Jake had bolted from the room after Piers. "Nobody ever listens to me," he complained, taking off after them both.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing having to do with the Resident Evil brand in any way, shape or form, nor do I have any fiscal stake in writing this story. It is all for my creative enjoyment. The only things I own are my original story ideas and my own characters.

**Author's Note:** Huzzah! I had a timeline for myself and I am very pleased to say I met it. I wanted to have this chapter up by the latest tonight, and here it is! So first let me start off by thanking everyone who reviewed. I am really overwhelmed and so pleased that so many people are liking this story. It's great to hear. So thank you a million times over. Next, this chapter. Man was this chapter a hell of a lot harder to write than I thought it was going to be. I had one way I wanted it to go, but after writing it and re-reading it a couple times, I just wasn't happy with it at all. So I re-wrote it completely. Like completely completely. The whole direction of it was different. I liked it better, but it still wasn't quite there. So I literally re-wrote the whole thing all over again! So for those of you who were wondering why it took so long to update, there's your reason. I really should've had this up maybe Monday/Tuesday, but I did so many re-writes that it took forever! But I am much, much happier with this chapter and the new plot of the story I've latched on to at the moment I am also really pleased with. So it was a win-win.

I'm not going to ramble on any more. I've done enough of that. Just one more quick thing that I think you will take as good news, I hope. I already have a decent start on chapter four based on how I cut up what I had written for chapter three's ending, so I would like to have chapter four up by let's say... Saturday? I hope I'm not being too optimistic, but that's where I'd like to be.

Also, super super quick. I hope there aren't any mistakes in here (which I'm sure there are because I'm far from perfect), but please excuse them. I've read through this several times today in attempts to get it where I wanted it to be to post, and I just tried to proof it again and it made my head spin, so I'm just going for it. I will go through it with a fine toothed comb tomorrow with fresh eyes, but I wanted this up tonight. So forgive the mistakes you find.

As always, I hope you enjoy what I've come up with. Thanks for reading.

* * *

Sherry stopped at the door to the building to glance over her shoulder. She knew Piers was close, so it was possible the eyes she felt on her belonged to him, but something just didn't feel right. Nothing seemed out of place when she took in her surroundings, so Sherry carefully and quietly cracked the door open before sliding inside.

The building wasn't in much better shape than the rest of the city it was located in. It was a small warehouse and there were overturned desks, broken chairs and random boxes and papers scattered everywhere. Sherry carefully stepped over a desk drawer as she made her way towards the center of the giant main room.

"Raya?" she called as loud as she dared, her eyes constantly scanning anything that could potentially be a threat. "Are you in here?"

Movement caught her eye in the far corner of the building as a woman stepped into the dim light, her face was dirty and she looked exhausted. "Raya?" Sherry asked, rushing forward towards her.

"Yes," she answered quietly.

"My name is Sherry Bikrin and I'm here to help get you and your son somewhere safe. Where…" Sherry's voice trailed off as she continued to study the woman's face. She looked oddly regretful and her eyes were erratically darting around the room. It reminded Sherry of a frightened animal. "What is it?"

"I-" she started, her face twisting in confliction as tears began to well in her eyes.

Looking behind her, Sherry saw nothing. "Raya, where's your son?"

When Sherry mentioned her child, Raya's wandering eyes snapped to the shorter woman's, fear plainly visible. "I don't know. They- I don't know."

"What-"

"There's no time," Raya murmured, her hands flying up to her neck as she pulled a necklace over her head. "Everything I could get is on here."

"Wh-" Lots of gun fire began going off outside the warehouse just as Sherry heard the all too familiar sound of multiple guns cocking behind her.

Thinking fast, Sherry slipped the necklace into her bra. "Hands up!"

Slowly, Sherry's hands raised above her head, her back still to whoever was barking orders. As a pair of hands roughly started patting her down and taking her weapons from her, Sherry watched with sad eyes as Raya cowered in fear. "Two handguns, identification and a phone," the man directly behind her muttered as he spun Sherry around, giving the items behind him to another soldier. All in all, Sherry could see five of them; the one furthest on the right had a firm grip on a small boy's shoulder.

The one, presumably in charge, inspected Sherry's guns with mild interest. "Nothing special," he shrugged, handing them off to another soldier. Holding up his automatic machine gun up to Sherry's chest. "So… Agent Birkin," he read off her I.D. badge, an eyebrow raised in interest. "You are here to rescue the Falks, are you?"

Taking a breath, Sherry nodded. "Yes, I am."

The laughter that followed her response was malicious as the man inspected Sherry intensely. "And what a wonderful job you are doing. Tell me, how exactly were you going to accomplish this?"

"Well," Sherry sighed, listening to the mellowed gunfire outside hoping that any second Piers would lend a hand. "For starters I wasn't expecting to run into you."

A pleased smirk slid onto his face as he shrugged. "Ah, but we were expecting you. Well, not you exactly, but an agent or task force. You're a pleasant surprise."

"I wish I could say the same, but you took my stuff, so…" Sherry's eyes darted towards the exit as a loud explosion went off.

"Unfortunately for your little B.S.S.A. friend is slightly outnumbered and-" A second explosion sounded from behind Sherry and she only had a second before large sections of the wall came flying towards her and everything went black.

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me!" Jake grumbled, ducking back behind a large piece of a brick building as the group of soldiers continued to submit them to a barrage of bullets. "Where the fuck did all these guys come from? There were less than twenty when they showed up and we took out over a forth of them before this even started."

Fredrick laughed loudly as he reloaded his cartridge. "As I've said time and time again, listen to Freddy," he breathed, cocking back his gun. "I said there were about seventeen that I could see, but that there were most likely more. I didn't say that there were seventeen, period. I always put a disclaimer on everything I say." Jake glared back at him. "What?"

"Just shut up, please," Jake hissed. Pressing his fingers to his headset, Jake squinted through the dust to where Piers was set up with his riffle. "I thought you were some long lost mythical riffle master or whatever. Are you fucking asleep or what?" he barked into his receiver.

"Fuck off, Muller," Piers grumbled back as five loud shots rang out, silencing the others.

Peering over the brick wall he and Fredrick were behind, Jake saw five new bodies on the ground. Letting out a huff, he flopped back into his sitting position. "Lucky shots, Nimon."

"Nivans," Piers hissed as a red dot appeared over Jake's chest. "You wanna see just how lucky of a shot I am?"

Glowering up at the building, Jake held up his middle finger in defiance as Piers' quiet laughter could be heard, the red dot disappearing. "Eyes forward, Piers."

"We need to move," Fredrick grumbled, ducking out from behind their protection to let off a few rounds.

"In a minute," Jake murmured, checking his cartridge.

"Don't have a minute," Fredrick breathed, grabbing Jake by the front of his shirt as he yanked him to his feet and they made a break for the next cover spot, their old one exploding from an RPG round.

As both men were hit by the blast and knocked to the ground, Jake pulled his legs up behind the rubble. "A little warning next time please!" he yelled over the noise, his hand instantly going to his receiver. "Cliff, Gregor… what the hell are you two doing? We could use a little help."

"I got him!" Jake looked across the street to see Gregor popping his head out from behind his shelter, his grenade launcher in his hand.

Following his line of vision, Jake's eyes widened in shock. "No, no, no, no!" Jake shouted, jumping up and waving his arms, but it was too late. Letting off several rounds, the explosions that rocked the building worked fast and the whole thing began collapsing in on itself.

"No," Jake breathed, moving towards the building but Fredrick's arm around him held him back.

"You can't, mate. The whole thing is coming down," he sad sadly, sparing a glace over his shoulder as the dust from the explosion began to cloud the air.

Jake's face was pained as he struggled against his friend's hold. "Let me go, Fredrick," Jake hissed. "She's in there! I have to do something!"

As Fredrick struggled to hold Jake back, Cliff and Gregor appeared beside him. "What's the problem?" Gregor asked, shrugging. "I handled it."

"You didn't handle it, you blew up the fucking building you moron!" Jake growled, swinging for Gregor.

"Hey!" Fredrick shouted, pulling Jake back and positioning himself in between the two men. "Killing him isn't going to change anything."

Jake was breathing heavily as he glared at Gregor. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" he growled, venom dripping off of every word.

Gregor let out a noise of frustration as he rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I saved your asses, you nut job."

Before Jake could even reply or even think about lunging for the younger mercenary, Piers came out of nowhere and landed a solid right hook that sent Gregor crumbling to the ground. "You fucking idiot!" he yelled, standing back and shaking his hand out at his side.

"Finally something we agree on," Jake mumbled, running his left hand through his short hair as his right planted itself on his hip.

"Sherry was in that building and so was our contact!" Piers practically screamed as he glowered at Gregor's pathetic form rolling around on the ground. "You just killed an agent of the United States and a woman who had inside information on Neo Umbrella!"

At the mention of her name, Jake's eyes drifted over to the warehouse sadly. As the arguing became more and more heated, Jake stumbled forward away from it, not seeing the importance of it right now. He could kill Gregor later.

No matter how many breaths he took, Jake felt like his lungs weren't working. Air was hard to come by as he stood on shaky legs, his eyes locked on the dust and rubble of the building that had been standing only minutes ago.

It could've been seconds or hours, but finally Jake felt a light hand on his shoulder. Not able to look away, Jake shrugged it off. "We didn't know," Cliff murmured quietly, coming to stand at Jake's side.

Jake opened his mouth to speak, to say something, but no words would come out. Instead he simply nodded a few times, still unable to look away from the warehouse remnants. After a while, Cliff gave Jake a pat on the back before walking away, Piers moving up to take the vacated spot.

"Anything?" he asked, his voice in a low whisper.

Shaking his head, Jake finally tore his eyes away form the rubble. "She'll be fine. Just give her a little more time."

Sighing, Piers gave a short nod as he moved to sit on a nearby pile of bricks.

* * *

"It's been four hours." All three sets of eyes snapped to where Gregor sat sulking like a child, a sour look on his face. "What? It has! How long are we gonna sit here and wait for Jake's dead girlfriend to magically become un-dead and pop out of the ground, huh?"

"Someone shut that kid up or I swear to God I'll cut his fucking tongue out," Piers snarled, his hand already reaching for his large hunting knife.

Cliff punched Gregor in the shoulder. "Show some respect."

"I'm trying to be practical here," he whined, standing. "It's nearly dark, and I refuse to get my face ripped off by BOW's once the sun goes down and they all come out to hunt simply because Jake can't admit what's literally already happened right in front of him."

Fredrick's left eye twitched at the comment as a deep frown line settled in between his eyebrows. "Gregor, shut your fucking gob," he hissed. "No one gives a shit about what you have to say on a good day."

"Fine," Gregor muttered, standing and shouldering his grenade launcher. "I'm going back to camp. You all can sit with Princess Muller all fucking night for all I care. But I'm going to sit by a fire, cook up some dinner and not get killed by BOWs."

"He has a point," Cliff murmured as he stood as well, glancing over to where Jake sat staring at the debris. "We need to get back to camp while there's still light. Getting trapped in the city is out of the question."

Fredrick and Piers shared a look as the B.S.A.A. agent got to his feet as well. "I'll talk to Jake," Fredrick sighed. Slowly he approached his friend before taking a seat next to him. Lightly nudging his shoulder with his, Fredrick gave Jake a weak smile. "Hey mate."

"Don't," Jake muttered, shaking his head.

"Don't what?" Fredrick inquired, turning his eyes back to the sad scene in front of him.

"Don't say it." Jake stared long and hard at what used to be a warehouse.

Frowning, Fredrick looked down at his dirt-covered hands. "It's getting dark, man. We can't stay out here any longer. I know you want to believe that she-"

"She is," Jake snapped, eyeing Fredrick carefully. "And you don't have to stay here with me. I don't need a fucking babysitter."

"I'm just worried about you, that's all," Fredrick whispered sadly, standing. "Just- don't stay out here much longer, alright? You know how this place can get at night."

"Yeah, I got it," Jake spat, turning back towards the building. "Just go."

Sighing, Fredrick walked back over to the group. "I'll cook you up some dinner so it will be good and hot when you get to camp." Jake didn't even acknowledge him as he continued to stare blankly at the pile of building. As Fredrick approached Cliff and Piers, Cliff gave him a worried look.

"He's not coming?"

Fredrick shook his head as he bent down and picked up his riffle. "No. He wants to stay a bit longer."

Piers took a step in Jake's direction before halting his progress. Shaking his head, he turned back to Fredrick and re-adjusted his riffle on his shoulder. "Lead the way."

* * *

It had been some time since Jake could hear their footsteps. Sparing a glance behind him, he looked around and couldn't find anyone. He was truly alone.

Standing, he made his way over to the front of the demolished building and kicked around random pieces of debris. In the fading light, Jake's eyes searched the wreckage for any possible sign of Sherry.

Taking slow, deliberate steps, Jake began to climb through the building fragments. Every so often he would come across a piece of fabric or limb and his heart would pang with hope. Shifting around things only to find someone other than Sherry made each discovery less and less encouraging.

Looking up, Jake squinted into the sunset with regret. He didn't want to think that she was gone, but what little hope he was desperately clinging to was fading with the sun. "Come on, Supergirl," he murmured quietly. "You gotta give me something. This can't be how it ends. Not after everything we've been through." Taking a deep breath, he did his best to push down the overwhelming feelings of helplessness and loneliness that were threatening to consume him. "I mean, we didn't even get to go out on a fucking date for Chirst's sake," he laughed humorlessly.

Sighing, he took a seat atop a large chunk of roof, pulling his right leg up to his chest. "You know, I've never been on a date? Like a real one," he said conversationally to himself as if Sherry were able to hear him. "I mean, I never had the time. Well, I also never really met anyone I wanted to do all that bullshit with. Nope; before we met I was strictly a sex guy." A small smile playing on his lips, Jake scratched his facial hair in thought. "I'm sure that shocks you, huh? It's hard to believe, but it's true."

As the sun dipped below the horizon, Jake's face contorted in pain as tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. "Come on, kiddo," he breathed, standing. "It's now or never."

Jake listened closely for any noise as he scanned the area again. Hanging his head in defeat, Jake trudged his way though the building pieces to the street. Swallowing hard, he crouched down and placed his hand flat to the ground. "I thought about you everyday," he murmured, choking back tears. "I couldn't-" he started, but his voice cracked under the intense emotions. Taking a few steadying breaths, Jake wiped away the few tears that had slipped past his defenses. "I will never forget you," he quietly vowed. Standing, Jake gave the warehouse one last look before turning and forcing his feet forward, his whole body in pain as if a giant hole had been ripped through his chest.

* * *

It was dark and there was intense pressure all over her body. Blinking, Sherry struggled to move. Taking a breath, she coughed out a mouthful of dust.

Attempting to pull her arms in front of her, Sherry felt panic sink in as her right one was pinned to the ground. Shifting her body, Sherry felt whatever was on top of her move slightly, just enough to get some leverage.

Letting out a whimper of pain, Sherry wrenched her arm free. It took everything she had to bite back the scream of pain welling up in her chest as something inside her arm snapped. Taking multiple short breaths, Sherry used her left arm to grab onto a piece of metal in front of her and pull her body free.

Sherry hissed in pain as she felt something sharp dig into her back and rip along the length of it as her upper body was freed. Wiggling herself completely free of the wall on top of her, Sherry collapsed in pain on her left side, her breathing heavy as her eyes looked around trying to figure out where she was and what had happened.

Her head throbbed as her memory flashed an image of the explosion. Feeling her back slowly healing, Sherry forced her body up into a sitting position before she stood on wobbly legs. Squinting in the darkness, Sherry could just make out a figure on the edge of her vision. She didn't know who it was, but she was willing to take a chance as she slowly made her way in its direction, hoping it was someone who would help her.

* * *

Jake was almost on the edge of the town when something made him stop. There was a nagging feeling that he was missing something; that he had to go back.

He had almost shaken it off when he heard a noise. Tilting his head to the side, Jake listened closely. "Please, stop."

Not trusting his ears, Jake cautiously turned around, freezing as his eyes landed on the small woman stumbling towards him at a slow pace. Blinking several times, Jake rubbed his eyes and opened them quickly. "Oh my God," he breathed rushing forward. "Sherry?" he questioned, stopping in front of her.

"Jake?" Taking a few short breaths, Sherry's eyes searched his face as her left hand tentatively came up to touch his face. "Are you real? Did I die?" she whispered, her fingers ghosting over his lips.

"I could ask you the same fucking thing," he responded, not even thinking twice as he swept her up into his arms. When Sherry let out a gasp of pain, Jake instantly dropped her body and stepped back, his eyes searching for any sign of injury. "What is it? What did I do?"

Groaning, Sherry nodded to her right. "My shoulder is dislocated."

"Ok," Jake muttered, his hands gently applying pressure to different places on her shoulder. "This is going to hurt pretty bad. You ready?" Sherry simply nodded and before she had time to fully prepare, Jake re-set her arm with a crack.

"Ah!" Sherry screamed, falling forward against Jake's chest.

Jake grimaced at her pain, his arms encircling her and holding her up. "Just breathe," he shushed her quietly, cradling her body to him. "Deep breaths, Sherry."

It took a few minutes, but finally Sherry's breathing became regulated as she settled against his chest. "What are you doing here?"

"Contract," Jake answered simply, his eyes scanning her face carefully, his fingers gently brushing her overgrown bangs out of her eyes. "I'm practically killing BOW's for a living. The pay isn't the best, but it's not bad."

"Oh," Sherry breathed, blinking up at him in thought.

Jake's smile faded as he took in her expression. "What is it? Are you still in pain?" he asked, fully taking in her tattered clothing and dirt and blood covered body.

Sherry shrugged, self consciously hugging the scraps of her shirt tighter to her body as she realized just how destroyed her shirt was. "Yes, but…" she paused, looking up into his eyes. "What- why did you stop emailing me?"

Jake couldn't help it when a chuckle of relief escaped his mouth. It wasn't a thing to laugh at, but compared to her being hurt it seemed like such a minor problem. Seeing her anger at it however was not a good thing. Clearing his throat, Jake rubbed the back of his head. Feelings were never something Jake felt comfortable talking about. It was a problem he ran into with his mother as a child. She'd always want him to talk about how he felt and his problems where Jake would rather keep them to himself or punch someone.

"I uh-" he stuttered awkwardly, grimacing as he mentally reviewed his options. "I don't suppose a simple, 'it's complicated' would suffice, would it?"

"No," Sherry said plainly, her eyes narrowing up at him in agitation. "Was it, you know, someone else? Cause if it was, you could've just said so."

Jake contemplated her words, confusion on his face. "Someone… oh. No," he said, shaking his head. "Why, you jealous?" he asked, raising an eyebrow flirtatiously at her.

Sherry scoffed, turning on her heel and marching away from him. "Hey!" he called, chuckling as he jogged to catch up with her. "Sherry, come on. Wait."

As he reached out and touched her shoulder, Sherry wrenched it out of his grasp. "Jake, I almost died. No, scratch that. I probably did just die and you're trying to make jokes? You fucking just stopped talking to me! No explanation, no reason. Nothing!" she shrieked, shoving his chest violently. "Why would you do that?"

"I didn't want to hurt you," Jake murmured regretfully, glancing down at the ground.

"You didn't want to hurt me?" Sherry hissed. "You didn't- oh come on, Jake. You're are not seriously trying that, are you? And what, you just thought not saying anything to me was a good way to not hurt me? Like you didn't know that was going to hurt me."

Jake sighed, his hands finding their way to his hips in a comfortable gesture. "I just- I don't know, ok?" he shouted back in frustration. "I couldn't keep doing it to either of us. I didn't want to lie to you and feed you some bullshit excuse like there was someone else or whatever else I could think up. You deserved something better, and I didn't know what to say. I tried like a thousand times to come up with something, but I couldn't. I suck at this talking about how I feel shit. You should know that."

Rolling her eyes, Sherry's arms crossed over her chest in defiance. "And that's not a bullshit answer?"

Unable to hide the shock on his face, Jake's eyebrows shot up in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me," he murmured, shaking his head to himself. "This is a joke, right?"

"No. Why would this be a joke?" Sherry grumbled, glancing around her as if she expected to see something funny going on.

Letting out a humorless laugh, Jake shook his head as he rubbed his beard aggressively. "Let me get this straight. I haven't gotten laid in over three years and have been staring at a fucking picture on my phone multiple times a day, walking around with my head up my ass pining after you like a God damn thirteen year old boy and that isn't good enough for you?" Taking a deep breath, he surveyed her critically. "You fucking broke me."

"What does that mean?" Sherry asked, her anger depleting.

Taking another steadying breath, Jake clenched and un-clenched his jaw. "Forget it," he huffed, slipping out of his jacket and holding it out for her. "Here. Put this on."

"Why?" Sherry asked, reaching out to take it.

"Because you're shirt might as well be non-existent and as much as I'd love to see your breasts I'm not so keen on the rest of the world seeing them as well," he muttered, averting his eyes as she stripped herself of the tattered remains of her shirt and jacket.

"Thanks," she whispered, shrugging on his jacket.

As she did, something small and shinny fell to the ground, drawing Jake's attention. "What the hell is that?" Jake hissed, crouching down and picking up the necklace in his hand, wiping off the dirt on it. "Here," he said, holding it out to her as he stood. "You dropped your necklace."

"Oh my God," Sherry breathed, snatching it up from him. "I can't believe I didn't lose it."

"Pier give that to you?" he hissed, his arms crossing over his chest.

Sherry spared Jake a scowl as she fiddled with it. "No, Raya Falk did, just before she died. She said that this held information," Sherry said to herself as she tried to find an opening on it.

"Falk is the scientist, right?" Jake asked, moving to stand behind her, looking down over her shoulder at the necklace.

"Right," Sherry nodded, her fingers gliding over the pendant. Letting out a noise of frustration, Sherry dropped her hands to her sides. "I don't know. I can't think right now."

Before Jake even thought about it, his hands came up to give her shoulders a reassuring rub. When it registered in his mind what he was doing, he instantly froze, his hands slowly retracting. "Sorry," he muttered in awkward apology.

"For what?" Sherry asked, looking back at him over his shoulder. There was something about how she looked in that moment that made Jake stare in awe. Self consciously, Sherry's right hand came up to feel her face for an abnormality, something, anything that would explain why he was staring at her in such an odd way. "What's wrong?" she asked quietly, almost nervous to get an answer.

Jake opened his mouth to reply, but couldn't force himself to say the words he knew were in his heart. "Awe hell," he muttered, grabbing Sherry's face, pulling her towards him into a passionate kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing having to do with the Resident Evil brand in any way, shape or form, nor do I have any fiscal stake in writing this story. It is all for my creative enjoyment. The only things I own are my original story ideas and my own characters.

**Author's Note:** Well, that update took a bit longer than I wanted, but it's finally here. Chapter 4! So first off, thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed. It means a lot. Yeah... I don't really know what more to say about this chapter. I don't think it is as exciting as the others, but they can't all be super exciting, right? I guess the only think left to say is perhaps expect a slightly slower update. I have a few projects going on around the house, it's psycho storm 2012 outside and on top of that I work 60 hours a week, so it may be a week or so before a new chapter is up. Just bear with me. Also, please forgive the 'action' scenes. I have a bit of a hard time writing them, so I hope they don't suck.

Ok, as always, I hope you like what I've come up with. If you do, please review. Also, I kind of would love to hear where you think things are going, what you like or don't like, and I would love to incorporate any fun ideas/plot points you might have into my story. So if you got some, please share! I'd love to hear them. :) Thanks!

* * *

Jake carefully lead Sherry up the side of the large hill that his camp overlooking the city was situated on. "Watch your step," he instructed, smirking to himself as he felt Sherry's hand reflexively tighten in his.

"Remind me again why your camp is on the side of a cliff?" Sherry asked, stumbling slightly.

"Because it has to be," Jake said, stepped aside and offering her his other hand to step over a large log. "If given the choice would you want to be up all night making sure you got to see the next day or sleep safely?"

"Sleep," Sherry answered, watching him swing his long legs over the log effortlessly.

"Well there you go," Jake breathed, easily continuing forward, sweeping up her hand as he did. "You see, for whatever reason, BOW's seem to stick to the city. We've only had run ins with a couple in the hills and they're mostly small puny ones," he explained, lifting a low hanging tree branch out of the way. "The super nasty ones that are left know we're here, so they wait until the sun goes down to come out. I guess they figured out that it's easier to pick us off if we can't see. So we found this little ledge of a small mountain and the can't get to us because the path is too narrow."

Sherry frowned into the darkness ahead of her. "Yeah, I can see the reasoning there."

As they drew nearer to the plateau, Jake slowed down, turning to face Sherry. "Ok, you need a few warnings before we go in there."

Sherry shot him a disbelieving look. "Why?"

"You do. Just, trust me," he sighed, his free hand coming up to rub at his tired eyes. "Everyone thinks you're dead, so we're just going to rip that bandage off quickly."

"Right," Sherry said, her unattached hand reaching up to trace the scar across his cheek that was protruding from his short beard. Jake took a moment to enjoy her touch, before rotating his head and nipping at her fingertips. "Ouch," Sherry complained, frowning up at him.

Jake shrugged it off, leaning in for a quick kiss. "Don't distract me then. Where was I… oh yeah. You hungry?"

Sherry let out a quiet laugh as she rolled her eyes. "Sort of."

"Well then, let's get to it."

* * *

"What did you say this was again?" Piers asked, frowning down into the murky soup, his spoon pushing around the chunks of meat floating in it.

Chewing quickly, Cliff swallowed. "Possum," he muttered before shoveling another spoonful into his mouth. Piers did his best to not grimace at the thought of what he was eating as he raised the spoon to his lips. "What do you think?"

Piers shrugged. "I've had worse."

"That's the spirit," Fredrick snorted, walking over from his tent. Taking up a seat, he rubbed his hands together and held them out in front of the fire. "Don't suppose Jake's shown up yet?"

"No," Cliff answered, setting his empty bowl down on the ground beside him.

From his place across from Piers, Gregor rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he mumbled to himself. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that Gregor. What did you say?" Fredrick scowled over at the younger man accusatorily.

"I said, who cares, Fredrick," he spat back. "The guy's probably long dead by now, just like his-" Mid sentence, Gregor let out a yelp of surprise as a hand slapped the back of his head roughly. Jumping to his feet and spinning around, Gregor locked eyes with a pair of angry grey ones. "Jake," he breathed, completely shocked.

"Just like his what, Gregor?" Jake asked, his frown deepening as Gregor's wide eyes darted from his to Sherry then back to Jake again.

"I, uh-" he fumbled over his words, not knowing what to say.

"Sherry!" Piers exclaimed happily, rushing over to pull her into a relieved hug. "We thought- we waited for hours. How did you… you know?"

"Easy on the hugs there, Pierre," Jake hissed, his arms crossing tight across his chest.

Stepping back from Sherry a fraction, Piers shot Jake a disbelieving look. "She's my partner and for all intensive purposes I thought she was dead. You're not seriously going to try and get territorial over a woman you haven't seen in years with me, are you?"

Letting out a short burst of spiteful laughter, Jake smirked back at the B.S.A.A. sniper. "If I actually thought you were a threat to me in any capacity, you'd already have a bullet between those pretty, beady little eyes Nivans."

"Oh yeah?" Piers challenged, taking a step in Jake's direction.

"Hey!" Sherry yelled, moving to stand in between them. "Cut it out. I just died, ok? Forgive me if I don't want to indulge your junior high pissing contest."

Taking a deep breath, Piers nodded, moving away to take up his previously vacated seat. "You're right, Sherry. I'm sorry."

"You know, from now on let's stick to Agent Birkin, pal," Jake grumbled.

As the two men glared at each other, Fredrick stood and made his way over to the new addition to their camp. "Fredrick Daniels, English royalty, part time gun for hire and full time playboy," he said, holding out his hand.

Sherry gave him an amused look as she shook it. "Agent Sherry Birkin, United Sates-"

"No," Jake interrupted, gently separating their hands. "I wouldn't," he murmured, shaking his head. "We don't know where his hands have been." Fredrick let out a string of musical laughter, his head tossing back in an over-the-top way that made Jake give him a questioning look. "You alright there, champ?"

"Always," Fredrick smiled back, patting him lightly on the shoulder as he guided Jake out of the space between himself and Sherry. "He is such a kidder, is he not?" he asked, waving his hand dismissively at Jake as he stared intently at the short blonde in front of him. "I must say, Miss Birkin, you look rather well for a dead woman. Rather well indeed, if I do say so myself."

"Which you don't," Jake grumbled, his eyes narrowing over at his friend.

Completely ignoring him, Fredrick continued to smile over at Sherry. "May I ask your secret?"

Sherry smiled back at the dark haired man in front of her. "It's a long story."

Fredrick's head tilted to the side in fascination as he inspected her with peaked interest. "One I shall have to hear some time, if I could get so luck," he smiled charmingly as he swept up her hand, giving it a light kiss.

"You're such a tool," Jake scowled, shoving Fredrick out of the way and into a gaping and surprisingly silent Gregor as he swept up Sherry's hand in his again. "That's Fredrick, Gregor's the ugly little idiot and over there is Cliff," he said, introducing her quickly. "Guys, this is Sherry. You already know Norman," he sighed, gesturing to Piers.

"Now you're just doing it on purpose," Piers complained under his breath as he watched Jake pull Sherry off towards the tents.

"Hello," Sherry smiled giving a small wave over her shoulder.

"Let's get you into a shirt," Jake muttered.

His ears perking up, Fredrick tried to get a look. "Wait, what happened to her shirt?" Fredrick called after them, all four other men watching with interest as they walked away. "Sherry, you can have my shirt!"

"Fuck off, Prince Charles!" Jake yelled back, saluting him with his middle finger.

"Well… that was rude," Fredrick chuckled as he headed back to his seat.

* * *

"So black or black?" Jake asked, holding up two identical looking long sleeve black shirts.

Sherry inspected them carefully before picking the one of the right. "What's wrong with this one?" Jake asked as he tossed the one that had not been chosen onto the ground as he settled back against the back of his tent, watching her intently as she peeled off his jacket.

"It smells musty," Sherry mumbled, moving to pull off the scraps of her tattered t-shit off.

"You need a shower or something," Jake commented absentmindedly as he looked over at all the dirt, dust and blood that was caked onto her skin. When his eyes drifted up to her face, he took in her displeased expression. "What?" he asked incredulously. "What did I say?"

"I'm gross now?" she huffed. "I didn't see you complaining about my body earlier."

A satisfied smirk slipped onto Jake's face as he replayed his favorite moments from their earlier intimate encounter in his head. "Hey, I never said you were gross. You jumped to that conclusion all on your own," he clarified, sitting up, his hands landing on the exposed flesh of Sherry's waist. "I like dirty girls."

Swatting them away, Sherry blushed bright red as she pulled the large shirt over her head. "I'm not one of your skanky sluts, Jake Muller."

"You're completely right," Jake nodded, rising to his knees. Crawling forward his arms encircled Sherry and pulled her gently against him. "You're my little slutty secret agent."

"Jake," Sherry moaned, her hands snaking up his back to entangle themselves as much as they could into his short hair. "Not now."

Ignoring her less than convincing protests, Jake trailed kisses across her neck as he kneaded her skin tenderly. "Now's perfect," he breathed against her clavicle, making his way back up to her lips. "Second time's the charm, right?" he mumbled, his hands moving to undo the button of her pants. "Or is it the third time?"

"No, wait," Sherry murmured, her hand coming to rest on top of his, halting his movement.

"What's wrong?" Jake asked, gently nudging her head with his as he entwined their fingers together.

Sherry sighed contently as she leaned her head against his chest. "It's just been a long, long day and I'm really tired," she explained. "Could we just go to sleep?"

Nodding, Jake flopped back onto the small pile of blankets and opened his arms. "Get over here," he mumbled. Sherry smiled back, laying down beside him and snuggling up to Jake's side. "You know, I could get used to this cuddling stuff," he said after a while, draping a blanket over them both. "It's not half bad."

* * *

The next morning, all six people sat around the fire easting their bowls of oatmeal Cliff had cooked for them.

"This is really good, Cliff. Thank you," Sherry smiled up at the older man as he dished out food for those who didn't have it yet.

He gave her a small smile. "You're welcome."

"Yeah, this is super," Gregor murmured sarcastically, watching as the sticky lumps of oatmeal flop off of his raised spoon back into his bowl.

From his place beside Sherry, Jake frowned over at the young man as he chewed his oatmeal aggressively. "It's too early for this shit, man. Just don't even start."

Gregor tossed his bowl onto the ground, his food spilling everywhere. Standing, he reached down and picked up his grenade launcher, shouldering it quickly. "You know, I think I'm gonna split. Not that this hasn't been a complete blast, but it's about time I move on I think." Letting out an amused snort, Jake didn't even bother looking up from his meal.

"Of course you are," Fredrick smiled up at him. "Well, good luck with whatever it is you're going off to do. I would say I've enjoyed working with you, but I haven't, so I won't."

Even Cliff cracked a smile at that as he sat quietly to the side. "Same to you, Fredrick," Gregor huffed. Turning to the side, he openly stared at Sherry, his eyes critical as he looked her over.

Briefly glancing up, Jake's eyes snapped back up to Gregor, lowering his bowl away from his mouth as he dropped his spoon into it. "I thought you were leaving," he grumbled, narrowing his eyes at the younger mercenary.

"I am," Gregor answered, not looking away from Sherry who awkwardly was shifting in her seat under his gaze.

"You got a problem or something?" Jake muttered, slowly standing.

Letting out an amused noise, Gregor rolled his eyes. "Cause I'm totally afraid of you, Muller."

A dangerous smile spread across Jake's face as his right hand came to rest casually on his gun. "As usual, you're stupid as shit Gregor."

"What's that mean?" he hissed angrily.

"You should be scared of me, kid," Jake mused, giving him a once over. "I'll rip your fucking throat out."

"Jake," Sherry hissed angrily.

Sighing, Fredrick stood and positioned himself firmly in between the two men. "Jake, sit yourself back down. Gregor, either get going or shut up and take a seat. Let's not act like uncivilized men. We have company, if you recall."

Shrugging, Jake sat back down, picking up his bowl. "Later Gregor," he said dismissively as he began shoveling food into his mouth again.

"Yeah, see you around, assholes." With that, Gregor turned and marched out of camp and down the narrow path.

"On behalf of mercenaries everywhere, I would like to apologize," Fredrick said calmly as he made his way back to his spot. "Sometimes we lose our tempers just like normal men and get a bit carried away."

Unamused, Piers rolled his eyes as he stood. "Right, well… thank you for the hospitality, but we really have to be going."

Jake let out a humorless snort as he glanced up at the B.S.A.A. agent. "Ok. See you around, G.I. Joe." From beside him, Sherry gently set her bowl down on the ground, standing. Looking up Jake frowned at her. "What are you doing? You're not going with this guy, are you?"

Sherry made an uncomfortable face as her eyes flickered between Jake and Piers'. "I have to get this information back to my superiors," she murmured.

His scowl deepening, Jake's jaw visibly tightened as he contemplated her words. "Fine. Where's your pick up or whatever?"

Reflexively, Sherry reached for her phone in her back pocket, confusion spreading across her face when she realized it was gone. "Oh yeah, they took it," she mumbled to herself. "They're just on the outside of the city where we were dropped."

Jake looked from Fredrick to Cliff then back to Sherry. "We will take you," he breathed, standing.

"Oh, you don't have to-"

"Yes, we do," Jake barked, turning on his heel and walking back to his tent.

Sherry watched him go sadly, Fredrick coming to stand next to her and setting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "He's got the emotional control of a teenage girl. Jake just watched you die, got you back and now has to lose you again. That'd be rough on anyone," he said quietly. "Just… give him some time."

* * *

The small contingency made their way through the seemingly dead city in complete silence. Jake walked far ahead with Fredrick by his side, Sherry and Piers made up the middle and Cliff followed a short distance behind them.

"Don't suppose you want to talk about it yet, eh?" Fredrick asked, glancing over at Jake.

"Nope," he mumbled quickly, keeping his eyes locked forward.

Sighing, Fredrik went back to scanning the area of any signs of trouble. "Fine, than maybe I can say a few things without you interrupting me. You can't do this, mate. It will fuck everything up." Looking back to Jake, he saw his eye twitch, but he said nothing. Taking that as an invitation to open the floodgates, he continued. "If you let this beautiful, kind, death defying creature slip through your far undeserving fingers again, I can promise you that you will never see her again, Jake."

"Fredrick," Jake growled in a low warning.

"No," Fredrick shook his head obstinately. "I mean it. That woman is a goddess and she was just taken away from you twenty-four hours ago. That should've opened your eyes wide up. Don't let your pride or whatever this is throw away a good thing."

Taking a deep breath, Jake glanced over his shoulder at where Sherry and Piers were talking quietly amongst themselves. He opened his mouth to reply, but felt the ground move beneath his feet. "Did you feel that?" he asked, turning to look at Fredrick.

Blinking, Fredrick glanced around the area shrugging. "No, I didn't- no, there it is," he breathed, his arms spreading out to help him maintain balance.

"This can't be seriously happening right now," Jake breathed. Turning around, he saw the giant BOW that had been eluding them for weeks slowly making it's way out from behind a building. "Run!" he yelled, unholstering both of his guns.

* * *

"Go, go!" Piers yelled over the gunfire and screeches of the BOW as he shoved Sherry into a building in front of him. "We've gotta get some height on this thing or we don't stand a chance," he panted, breathing heavily.

"Right," Sherry nodded, holding out her hand as Piers supplied her with more ammo for his handgun he had given her when it first appeared.

Loading it quickly, Sherry, followed closely by Piers made their way up the unstable stairs all the way to the roof. Kicking the door open, they burst out and were met face to face with the BOW.

"Shit," Piers swore, his arm scooping Sherry up as he tugged her quickly out of the way of a giant clawed hand. Setting her down on her own two feet, Piers moved to shoulder his riffle. "Cover me!" he shouted, squinting into the scope. Running forward, Sherry began letting off rounds, drawing the creature's attention and getting it to turn its head completely towards them.

Two extra loud consecutive shots ran out landing directly into its eyes. The giant creature reared back, its long arms flinging to it's head as it let out loud screams of agony. It began shaking violently as it's head split open to reveal not only one larger eye on a tentacle, but a giant set of teeth. "That's not good," Sherry mumbled as Piers slung his riffle back onto his shoulder, taking off at a mad dash, grabbing her hand as he ran by. "What do we do now?" she yelled over the noise as the creature began slowly trudging after them.

Piers shook his head, his eyes locked on the clay tile roof of the building across from them. "We jump," he instructed, leaping through the air with her in tow.

As they flew through the air, three giant U.S. military choppers came out of nowhere and began opening fire on the creature. When their feet connected with the building, the tiles began to shatter and Sherry and Piers began sliding down towards the ground a story below.

"Hold on!" Piers yelled, cradling Sherry to him protectively as the roof ended and they plummeted to the ground onto a pile of debris. Piers let out a grunt of pain as he felt something in his side crack.

Letting out a haggard breath, he unwound his arms from around his small partner's frame as he glanced down at her. "You alright?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," Sherry nodded, sitting up. As she slowly stood to her feet, she saw how he struggled with simply leaning forward. "Here, let me help you," she mumbled, bending down to maneuver herself under his arm and help him stand.

"Thanks," he murmured, hissing in pain as he stretched his body out to its full height.

Taking careful movements, Sherry assisted him and they slowly made their way to the mouth of the alley. Together they stood and watched as ground troops in B.S.A.A. gear finished off the BOW.

"They are a sight for sore eyes," Sherry said, smiling.

"You have no idea," Piers breathed as two men jogged toward them quickly. "Thanks for the save, Captain," he said, holding his hand that wasn't holding on to Sherry up to his forehead to salute his superior officer.

The older man grinned, nodding in respect. "Don't mention it, Piers." Chris Redfield reached out his hand and shook his Lieutenant's hand, turning to Sherry. "If you two are ready, we can get out of here."

Piers and Sherry shared a look. "More than ready, Sir."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing having to do with the Resident Evil brand in any way, shape or form, nor do I have any fiscal stake in writing this story. It is all for my creative enjoyment. The only things I own are my original story ideas and my own characters.

**Author's Note:** A bit longer than I had hoped in terms of uploading time, but oh well. Sorry about that. Anyways, here's chapter five. It was a bit challenging to write because it was slower, plus there are a few characters in this chapter that I hope came out saying/acting like themselves. Also, it was a bit tricky for me because there are four different 'storylines' if you want to call them that, in this chapter, and I like more one/two. Again, it's whatever though. I just hope what I'm doing is going to translate well.

A few quick little notes. I try to be as grammatically correct as I can with the exception of people's speech. I think that in most cases people have their own unique little quirks and ways they like to express things, so I try to capture that. For example, how I imagine Fredrick speaking. To me he's one of those guys who talks a lot, kind of like Jake, and he tends to word things in ways most people wouldn't. Anyway, I hope that makes sense. A few quick reassurances. While I'm on the subject of Fredrick, he isn't in this chapter, but I promise he will be coming back in the next one. So no worries. For those of you who didn't feel Sherry was independent/strong enough, I promise that it was intensional. Don't get upset though, because I love a strong female character so she isn't going to be lame. She will be kicking ass soon enough! Lastly, for now, while this is a Sherry/Jake based story, there will be lots of familiar faces floating in and out of chapters and old friends will be involved.

Other than that, I hope you enjoy what I've come up with. I'll try to update within the next week or so, but I've been neglecting other 'in progress' stories of mine and will be trying to update one than the other, so it may be a bit longer than that. As always, thanks for taking the time to read. I am humbled by you. If you read it and like it, feel free to drop me a message/review. I love to hear from people. Same goes as last time. If anyone has an idea/theory/suggestion or anything, please share those too. I love hearing from you in whatever way you want. :) Thanks for the continued support. You guys are great.

* * *

Jake paced the small holding cell, his combat boots padding in a methodical rhythm that reverberated off the stone walls. Every few minutes he would look at the door momentarily before resuming his circuit of the room.

* * *

"_Who called the boys in green?" Fredrick asked as he, Cliff and Jake stood off to the side of the battered street watching B.S.A.A. agents as they finished with the BOW they had just killed._

_Cliff's eyes continuously scanned their surroundings, his nerves spiked by all the new activity surrounding them. "Who cares," Jake muttered, sparing a scowl for a pair of agents as they passed. "You see Sherry?" he asked his companions._

"_Not yet. This is like Where's Waldo without the distinguishable outfit. And of course I don't ever remember seeing the one where he visited a destroyed city flooded with international bioterror soldiers," Fredrick sighed, scratching his head. "If only- oh, wait. There she is," he exclaimed, pointing off towards one of the helicopters._

_Jake followed his finger, squinting across 100 meters. "Son of a bitch," he hissed, moving towards where Sherry stood, Piers leaning on her and a few other B.S.A.A. agents assisting in loading them onto the aircraft._

"_Hey!" Jake glanced over his shoulder to see a pair of agents walking towards him. Ignoring them, he continued jogging towards Sherry, Fredrick and Cliff on his heels when an arm shot out in front of him. "Stop, we need you to-"_

_Not even thinking about the possible ramifications of his actions, Jake grabbed onto the man's arm, twisting it and the agent's body before swiftly kicking his legs out from under him. Sensing the soldier's partner raising his machine gun, Jake quickly rotated, putting all his body weight behind his palm as he used it to shove the weapon into the soldier's face._

_Before he managed to get two feet away from the men he had taken down, Jake felt a sharp, hot, familiar pain in his shoulder. Everything moved in slow motion as a ringing noise filled his ears, his eyes drifting to his left shoulder as the warm red liquid began to spread._

"_Mother fuck-" he started to hiss as a few B.S.A.A. agents tackled him to the ground._

* * *

Jake had woken up later in a holding cell, not knowing how he got there or where there specifically was. Feeling a terrible pain, Jake looked to his side. "Right," he hissed, standing.

He had spent the rest of his time since waking up switching between pacing the room or shouting at the security camera watching him.

Now he sat glaring at the door, his back hunched and his eyes sharp. Jake took a deep breath as he heard the metal locking mechanism creaking to life as the door slowly opened.

Two soldiers walked in and headed straight for him. Roughly they pulled him to his feet, shoving him forward into a brightly lit hallway. "More hospitality?" Jake muttered, instantly earning a swift smack to the back of his head from one of their guns. "Nice. Real professional boys."

They lead him to another door, opening it. Pushing him through, Jake stumbled into the dimly lit room. He glanced over his shoulder to see the door slam behind him. "Score," he breathed, wincing as he straightened up. Turning his attention back to his new small prison, Jake frowned at the table and the single light hanging over it. "This is ridiculous. Could you guys be any more cliché?"

"Have a seat, Muller."

Squinting across the table, Jake approached it slowly, holding his handcuffed hands out in front of him as he sat. "Well if it isn't everyone's favorite Captain, Chris Redfield. How's it hanging, Chief?"

Leaning forward into the light, Chris frowned across the table at the smirking mercenary. "You know, I was hoping since I'd seen you you'd grown up a bit."

"Sorry to disappoint," Jake shrugged, looking confident and collected.

"I don't see what you could possibly be so pleased with yourself about. You're looking at some serious charges."

"Oh yeah?" Jake mused, leaning back in his chair. "Why don't you lay it on me."

Sighing, Chris flipped open the folder in front of him. "Assaulting a soldier of the United States of America, two counts. Attempting to obstruct international operations of the B.S.A.A., one count. Interfering with-"

"Yeah, I don't know why I asked," he snickered, shaking his head. "I don't really give a shit."

Taking a calming breath, Chris pursed his lips as he closed the folder. "You can cut the bullshit, Jake. At this point it is only going hurt your case."

"It's not bullshit," Jake shrugged, regretting it as the pain throbbed in his arm.

"Fine," Chris hissed, shaking his head. Standing, he pushed back from the table. "When you decide you want to talk, I'll be back."

Jake waited until Chris was almost at the door before calling after him. "Wait." Pausing in his movement, Chris looked over his shoulder. "What-is Sherry ok?"

"You going to cooperate?" Chris asked, turning to face Jake, his arms crossing over his broad chest. It made Jake's skin crawl, but he nodded, not saying a word. "Sherry is fine."

Letting out a breath of relief, Jake shrugged. "So, what do you want from me, a confession or something? Do I have to sign on the dotted line in my blood or what?"

"No," Chris mumbled, shaking his head. "I want you to tell me what you were doing in Maldonia. I want to know why you attacked two of my men. You work with me and I'll get the charges dropped."

"What's the point?" Jake shrugged again, rolling his eyes. "I'm sure you already have your own theories and answers to your questions, so just write down whatever you want. Court marshal me or whatever it is your bosses want, just get it over with."

"What were you doing in Maldonia and why did you attack two of my men?" Chris repeated, pulling out the chair and sitting down.

Sighing, Jake rubbed his eyes in a tired way as he slouched down further in his chair. "Why do you think?" he grumbled, looking back up at Chris. Seeing his unwavering expression, Jake shook his head. "I was on contract. The country is a shit hole like a lot of the Middle East and Europe because of all the BOWs. I knocked your little G.I. Joe's on their asses because they got in the way, that's all."

"The way of what?" Chris asked seriously.

Jake looked past Chris to the wall, blinking a few times, his jaw taught. "I was-" he started, the image of Sherry helping Piers onto the helicopter surrounded by B.S.A.A. agents. "He grabbed me." Plastering a salty expression on his face, Jake surveyed Chris critically. "I don't like being touched."

"So it was a reaction to Roberts." It was a statement, not a question. Chris watched Jake closely, gauging his reaction. Jake continued to breathe normally, his face unaffected under Chris's heavy stare. "Killing BOW's for a living doesn't really seem like the self serving guy I witnessed in Edonia and China. I read the report Sherry filed on your time together during the height of the C Virus outbreak."

"So you can read after all. Interesting," Jake mumbled to himself, letting out a minimally amused chuckle.

Chris let out a frustrated sigh. "You know, I'm having a real hard time reconciling the man Agent Birkin described in her report, the one who takes the dangerous job of killing BOW's for a living and the ignorant, immature jackass I'm looking at right now. He reminds me a lot of the idiot kid I met in Edonia."

Jake let out an annoyed snort, shaking his head. "Don't try to psychoanalyze me, Captain Kangaroo. It's gonna get you nowhere."

"Ok Jake," Chris grumbled, slapping his tights with his hands as he stood.

Frowning to himself, Jake watched Chris as he knocked on the door. "Wait, that's it? You're just leaving?" he asked disbelievingly. "I thought you wanted answers?" Not responding, Chris moved through the door, slamming it behind him.

"Fuck," Jake sighed, slouching back in the hard metal chair as he looked around the room. "Now what?"

* * *

Frowning, Sherry closed her menu for the fifth time, her foot tapping at a fast pace as her anxiety intensified. Looking at her watch, Sherry forced her foot still as she re-opened her menu.

"Sher?"

"Oh thank God," she breathed, closing her menu and jumping to her feet and throwing her arm around her friend.

Leon smiled, hugging her back. "I take it your first day off was relaxing?"

Sherry smiled, standing back and looking him over. "It's rude to tease, Leon," she scolded, sliding back into her seat. "It's been hell."

"Sorry," Leon apologized as he slipped out of his old leather jacket, hanging it on the back of his chair as he sat. "Have you heard back from the director yet?"

"Yeah," Sherry frowned, her fingers gently tracing patterns in the tabletop.

"No luck with the appeal then?" he asked quietly. Sherry shook her head sadly. Opening his menu, Leon glanced up at her. "Maybe it's for the best, you know. Take some time off. We're those kind of people who work till we can't stand. Sometimes getting them forced on us is what we need."

Sherry's eyes snapped up to his, her mouth agape. "How can I take time off or relax if Neo-Umbrella is out there still in operation doing God knows what?"

Glancing around the fairly crowded restaurant, Leon was pleased to see no one paying any attention to them. Turning back to Sherry, he gave her a sympathetic look. "I know how you feel and I'd be the same way in your position, but there's nothing you can do at this point. You have to wait to be re-instated."

Scoffing, Sherry rolled her eyes as she sipped her glass of water. "This whole thing is absurd. They said I am emotionally compromised," she whispered, leaning forward in her seat. "As if any of us can do this job without some type of emotions getting in the way. We're all human."

"You lost a mother and a child you were supposed to bring in, Sherry," Jake challenged quietly. "I know this job means a lot to you, but even you have to see that this situation is a little close to home."

"If you're trying to say that because she was a scientist and I was projecting my feelings and emotions onto them, you can just save it," she huffed. "I've heard it multiple times from a bunch of different people in many ways. I mean, come on. I didn't even know them. The best argument they have for being emotionally compromised would be Jake, but I'm not and that's none of their business anyway."

"Jake-" Leon started, but their server appeared beside their table, silencing him.

"Good evening," the young woman eyes shifted between the pair as a bright smile settled onto her face. "Are you ready to order?"

"I am. Leon?" Sherry asked. He nodded, gesturing for her to go ahead with her order. "I'll have the grilled chicken apple cranberry salad with the house salad please."

The waitress nodded, scribbling down her order before looking up at Leon. "And for you sir?"

"Steak, medium," Leon said, his eyes scanning the menu before snapping it closed. "Steamed vegetables for my side."

"Excellent choices." The young woman complemented before rushing away.

Leon looked back to Sherry to see her watching him closely. "What?" he asked quietly, reaching for his glass of water.

"Nothing," Sherry murmured, shaking her head. "It's just, how do you do it? I mean, you aren't on leave or anything. But how do you go from field agent and all the chaos to just doing normal everyday stuff in D.C.?"

Setting his glass back down on the table carefully, Leon maneuvered the bottom of his fork slightly to the left so that it was in a perfect straight line. "It never really goes away, that instinct to take a second glance at every single person around you, to scan for every possible weapon and exit. Sometimes I think it's a gift, always being ready for anything. But those occasions are rare. Like tonight, for example," he breathed, his eyes drifting from the silverware to Sherry, all of the previous darkness in his features gone. "If I hadn't gone through all the shit that I have, I would've never met you or Claire."

"Silver lining," Sherry muttered, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"Silver lining," Leon repeated, nodding his head once. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes just staring at each other, grateful for the friendship they had. Finally Leon sighed, his right hand clenching and unclenching as he felt the unspoken question in the forefront of his mind start to weigh on him. "So… do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Sherry asked, her tone still as lighthearted as it had been a moment ago.

Glancing over his shoulder, Leon double-checked that they were out of earshot of anyone who could be listening. "About what happened in Maldonia. About the scientist and her child. About Jake. Whatever you want, really."

Sherry shrugged casually as she took another sip of water. "You already know the details. What else is there?"

"Sherry," Leon breathed, his left hand reaching across the table for her right. "Losing people is never easy, especially since-"

"No," Sherry interrupted, her jaw setting in a firm line. "Don't you start too. I told them I'm ok. It- everything is fine. I'm fine."

"Ok," Leon said, nodding. "I just wanted to check."

Taking a deep breath, Sherry relaxed slightly as she settled back into her chair. "I don't suppose you've heard anything about Jake, have you?"

"Depends," Leon mumbled, smirking over at her. "Tell me what all you know and I'll tell you what you're missing, if anything. Knowing you, you probably know more than I do."

Rolling her eyes, Sherry pursed her lips as she tried to think of the most recent news she was able to weasel out of Piers. "Well, I know he's being held by the B.S.A.A., but I still can't get a straight answer as to where or why."

"Assault, obstruction of international operations, interfering with an active mission, aiding in-"

"Come on," Sherry hissed, leaning forward, her right hand pointer finger jabbing into the tabletop. "Clearly he was assisting in our mission-"

"He's a hired gun, Sherry," Leon interrupted, shrugging. "He's a mercenary who was stomping around a B.S.A.A. secure location with his buddies and he broke a guy's nose."

Sighing, Sherry ran her hands through her hair in frustration. "I'm sure it was an accident. Besides, doesn't the fact that he saved the world a few years ago mean anything to anyone? You know, like a get out of jail free card or something?"

Letting out a small chuckle, Leon nodded. "It should mean something, and I'm sure it has some merit to it, but since the officers Jake assaulted are on Chris' team, it's up to him whether to drop the charges or not. From what I heard they were willing to let it go, but Chris is having him held regardless."

"You're kidding," Sherry breathed, slouching back in her seat. "You don't think he'll drag Jake through the mud because of Wesker, do you?"

"Chris is one of the most morally driven guys I know," Leon said seriously. "But he and Jill went through hell because of Wesker. I can't speak for Chris, but I don't think I could be 100% objective if our situations were reversed."

Sighing, Sherry nervously nibbled on her bottom lip. "No, I guess not. Maybe you could talk to him?"

Smirking, Leon unfolded his napkin and placed it across his lap. "I knew you would ask."

"Is that a yes?" Sherry smiled hopefully, blinking over at the man she thought of as her older brother.

"I'm grabbing lunch with him tomorrow," Leon breathed, folding his hands on the table in front of him as Sherry practically beamed at him. She opened her mouth to speak, but Leon held up a hand to cut her off. "Don't get your hopes up. I'm going to ask him what the situation is. That doesn't mean he is going to tell me anything we don't already know, and I'm not going to ask him for any favors," he chuckled quietly.

"Still, Leon, thank you," Sherry smiled, breathing a sigh of relief. "You're the best."

Amused, Leon shook his head. "Yeah, yeah. Save it, kid."

* * *

Chris sat in his chair in his office starring out the window at the bright lights of the nation's capital at night. He watched absentmindedly as a few agents walked to their cars in the brightly lit parking lot below.

Hearing a chime from his computer, Chris slowly spun back around to his desk, clicking on the blinking icon alerting him of a new message.

**Jill**_**: **__Working late again tonight?_

Smirking, Chris typed out a quick response, hitting send.

**Chris**_**: **__No. I'm about to head out._

Moments later, another IM appeared on the screen.

**Jill:** _Ok. Drive safe._

Chris' eyes drifted from the screen to his favorite picture that sat framed on his desk from their wedding day.

**Chris:** _Will do. See you soon, Mrs. Redfield._

**Jill:** _Roger that, Mr. Redfield._

Letting out a quiet chuckle, Chris logged out of his account and put his computer in sleep mode. As he stood, slipping into his dark green B.S.A.A. issued jacket, Chris frowned down at the open files on his desk. One was much larger than the other in comparison, but to him the smaller one had potential to be just as thick. Sighing, Chris' fingers pushed the two men's photos side-by-side, glaring down at them in distaste. The physical similarities between the two men were undeniable, and Chris would be lying if he said he didn't instantly think of Wesker when he looked at Jake. He felt guilty for it, but it was the truth. If only there was some way Chris could know if the son would turn out to be as bad as the father.

At that thought, Chris growled as he zipped up his coat. Walking around the desk, he clicked off the lights, shutting his office door and all the troubles it held within it.

* * *

After a minute of fiddling with two paperclips, the lock clicked and the door popped open. The small woman quickly slipped into the office and closed the door behind her. Not hesitating a second, she slipped along the wall and slid into the large office chair, waking up the computer.

Connecting a wire directly into the hard drive, she bypassed the password and was granted access to the internal files. As the attached device searched and downloaded files, the women picked up the pictures off the desk and held them up in front of her.

"Jake Muller," she murmured, smirking down at the photograph. Looking beyond it to the open file, the woman laughed quietly to herself, tossing the photograph aside. Reading through the top sheet carefully, she flipped through the rest, snapping photographs of noteworthy things as she went.

Checking her watch, she quickly disconnected the device that had completed its job of file retrieval and system corruption, sliding it into her pocket. Quietly she exited the room, calmly slipping into the stairwell.

When she reached the bottom and had exited the building, her phone vibrated from its place in her jacket pocket. Swiftly taking it out, she held it up to her ear.

"Is it done?"

"Of course," she murmured into the receiver, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes as she headed for her get away car at a relaxed pace. "I'll upload the files as soon as I'm in a secure location and send them your way."

"Excellent. Well done, Miss Wong. You will receive the rest of your payment when we have everything."

Ada smiled to herself as she maneuvered into her car, starting it effortlessly. "Pleasure doing business with you."


End file.
